Australia's largest telco is in a strong position to extract favourable terms from the government, particularly for the upgraded copper network, which Telstra was obliged to sell to NBN.

However, other, smaller players are also keen to become involved.

Two separate conversations

Various sale figures are floating around telecommunications circles and depend on how much of NBN is offloaded. Trade sources say there are "two separate conversations going on", one where a much larger part of the NBN network would be sold.

However, the final sale figure is likely to be as low as $20 billion, those same trade sources say, which would effectively mean a massive loss for the government, although longer term ministers expect that such a sale would help the government's fiscal position. In the event the government does not receive adequate bids, it might delay the sale or abandon it.

Meanwhile, NBN has replaced its last Labor-appointed board director, Alison Lansley, with former energy industry executive and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation director Shirley In't Veld.

Fairfax Media revealed in November NBN and the federal government were preparing to replace Ms Lansley, who was one of just two Labor-appointed NBN directors to survive the Coalition's election victory in 2013.

The other director, Dr Kerry Schott, was reappointed but it was understood Ms Lansley would not remain in the position.


Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann confirmed the move in a joint statement and announced that Ms In't Veld would replace her on the NBN board.

Ms In't Veld was on the board of Western Australia's biggest power generator Verge Energy for five years before leaving in April 2012. She then joined the board of the CSIRO in 2012 and was reappointed for another term in June 2015. She is also a non-executive director of ports provider Asciano.

Heroic effort needed

In November NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski warned it would take a "heroic" effort for the project to be made available to more than 11 million homes before a 2020 deadline, which the government earlier described as "achievable".

Dr Switkowski, who was chief executive of Telstra from 1999 to 2004, said he was pleased with the progress of the NBN rollout under chief executive Bill Morrow but added the acceleration in construction needed in the next five years to ensure all Australians are serviced by the country's largest and most expensive infrastructure project was not without risk.

As NBN enters a critical acceleration phase in its construction, management believes it can meet the 2020 deadline by increasing the size of the project's construction workforce rolling out the network through a mixture of technologies, including fixed-line, wireless and satellite.

However, the government's developing sale plans, which are likely to be hotly opposed by the opposition, have radically changed the outlook for NBN.

with David Ramli