NBN Co will begin a customer pilot on the cable television infrastructure it acquired from Telstra and Optus, as part of the multi-technology National Broadband Network, in the final quarter of next year, with commercial services to be offered at the beginning of 2016.
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On Sunday, Telstra signed a new national broadband network deal with the government that it said is worth the same $11 billion as its deal with the previous Labor government, and will see the company progressively sell its copper and HFC (hybrid fibre coaxial) network to NBN Co.
The government broadband provider will also acquire Optus's HFC network, which it said was of equivalent value to its $800 million 2011 deal. HFC networks were originally put in place to distribute cable television.
It is the first time the HFC network has been included in the NBN product roadmap.
In one scenario outlined by NBN Co in its corporate plan, HFC could account for 27 per cent of the entire rollout.
"The recently revised definitive agreements between Telstra and NBN Co allows for the incorporation of existing networks in parts of the country where it represents the fastest and most cost effective way to deliver the NBN," NBN Co chief customer officer John Simon said.
Under the Coalition's multi-technology model, NBN Co is aiming to hit 1.9 million homes by the middle of 2016. This is in large part thanks to the plan to start rolling out fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB) to 20 multi-dwelling units per month in the near term.
However, this does not include Telstra and Optus's HFC networks, meaning even more people could be connected by this date.
Mr Morrow told Fairfax Media on Sunday that the HFC network would be able to provide the minimum requirement 25 Megabits per second download speed required in the rollout.
NBN Co will begin industry consultation on a fibre-on-demand product in January. In the same month, retail service providers will also start receiving information about the rollout of fibre-to-the-basement, with the initial product release schedule for March 2015.
"We are continuing our FTTB pilot in inner-city Melbourne with around 45 end users currently experiencing average download peak speeds of 89 Mbps and average upload speeds of 36 Megabits per second," Mr Simon said.
NBN Co anticipates to begin offering fibre-to-the-node products commercially in some areas in the third quarter of next year.
