NBN Buying Up Telco Assets?

Interesting story out of the The Australian today about how the National Broadband Network Company might be looking to buy assets from some of the Telcos for the network, which started rolling out earlier this year.

Apparently they are in talks with TransACT and Telstra, who are keeping mum at the moment, but it certainly makes sense. It will give the NBN a bit of a head start, which is really good because the roll out is already running behind.

What I find weird is that they are being so coy about it. In the case of Telstra, it’s not like they are wholly government owned any more, so why do they care if their gear is being bought up? If a buy up does go ahead I not too sure if that would put them ahead of schedule or make up for the downtime that has already been lost. The cynic in me says it’s probably the latter.

That aside, I’m sure I speak for everyone, that if the NBN does manage to cut some corners that won’t affect the actual network itself, then that can’t be a bad thing.