TELSTRA is not the only potential threat to the NBN, of course.
No one has failed to notice the huge uptake of wireless broadband driven by data cards and, more importantly, shiny new gadgets like Apple's iPhone, which finally deliver the rich content and applications that thrive on high bandwidth.
Fourth generation (4G) mobile technology, which has since been dubbed Long Term Evolution (LTE), promises to deliver ''peak speeds'' of up to 340Mbps, according to Optus, which begs the question of what if NBN Co rolls out its fibre-optic network at great expense but households do not come to the party.
It has already become a problem for Telstra with an estimated 8 per cent of households going completely mobile for their communications needs.
David Kennedy, a research director at Ovum, says 15 per cent of households could be wireless within five years. But he predicts an easy co-existence between mobile and fixed networks with bandwidth-intensive applications like video finding a natural home on fixed networks which has technical advantages that ensure its pricing will be more friendly for users.
''Mobile will always demand a premium,'' says Mr Kennedy.
Vendors like Optus, which derives most of its income from mobile, certainly agrees.
''For the forseeable future, fibre networks will remain a very significant step ahead of mobile networks in terms of capacity and economics for very high-volume traffic,'' its chief executive, Paul O'Sullivan, told an audience at the NBN symposium last year.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia has even opened itself to the possibility of offering services on the NBN's fixed-line network.
''We believe the NBN will bring a new era of competition in broadband, and we will work with NBN Co to identify any opportunities once we have clarity on the NBN's products, service model, and pricing," said Zac Summers, head of strategy at the mobile services group.
Even if this doesn't happen, the government's strategy of investing in backhaul infrastructure - the intermediary networks that connect outlying end-user traffic from fixed line and mobiles to telco's backbone networks - will be a boon to the mobile industry.
''The recent and substantial growth in mobile broadband take-up has already increased demand for backhaul transmission and its importance will grow exponentially as technology advances,'' said Vodafone last year.
''Backhaul access is likely to be one of the most significant bottleneck services in the short to medium term or at least until the NBN has been rolled out.''
