According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the NBN Co's revised deal will be even more lucrative for Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) and Optus – owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (CHESS) (ASX: SGT) – than previously thought.
Under the Labor government's NBN, superfast fibre optic cable would run directly to households and achieve speeds of 100mbps. However the current government's fibre to the node strategy will have lower costs but achieve lesser speeds. It'll utilise existing infrastructure like Telstra's 100-year-old copper cable and is expected to deliver around 25mbps.
Under previous agreements with the NBN Co, Telstra was set to receive some $11.2 billion for the infrastructure it would be forced to relinquish in order to transfer the competitive advantage of wholesale pricing to the NBN Co.
Since the Coalition's election victory, shareholders have been concerned about the possibility of any adverse changes to its contract with the NBN Co. However the article in today's SMH suggests Telstra is set to benefit from any revisions in the contract, along with Optus.
It is believed Telstra's $11.2 billion will still be on the table but it'd be entitled to more payments since it would be, "an adviser to the rollout and construction overseer."
Optus will also stand to benefit since both it and Telstra's hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable networks will be used in the rollout.
The new deal was expected to be considered by the government yesterday, with both telcos believed to be ready to sign the documents before Christmas. The ACCC will then review the deal in early 2015.
