The Australian government has completed months of negotiations with incumbent operators Telstra and Optus, arranging to take progressive ownership of parts of their HFC networks for the National Broadband Network (NBN).
NBN Co, the state-owned company overseeing construction of the NBN, has signed a deal with Telstra that will see it progressively take over many parts of Telstra's copper and HFC networks.
The deal will cover areas due to be served by FTTN or HFC under the revised NBN rollout model.
NBN Co's original definitive agreements with Telstra allowed access to the former state-owned operator's ducts, pits and exchanges, but not its copper or HFC assets.
The government and NBN Co have also negotiated a revised deal with Optus that will see NBN Co take progressive ownership of the Optus HFC network.
The original plan for the NBN would have involved shutting this HFC network down.
Both agreements require the approval of competition regulator ACCC and rulings by the Australian Taxation Office.
NBN Co is negotiating a separate agreement with Telstra that could involve the operator providing planning, design, construction and maintenance services for the network rollout.
The Coalition's revised multi-technology model aims to provide all homes and businesses access to broadband speeds of at least 25 Mbps by 2020.
The original model would have involved rolling out FTTP to 93% of the population, guaranteeing speeds of at least 100 Mbps, but this network would have taken an estimated six years longer to complete.