NBN Co to release three-year rollout plan Thursday

NBN Co has revealed it will release the much-anticipated forward rollout plan for the National Broadband Network on Thursday.

The network builder is expected to reveal for the first time how many homes it expects to pass over the next three years, as well as before the next federal election in 2013.

Communications minister Stephen Conroy and NBN Co chief Mike Quigley will release the plans at a media conference.

The plan had been expected before the end of March.

It provides an indicative view of the network rollout over the next three years based on Telstra infrastructure details the network builder now has access to since the $9 billion agreement between the companies was finalised.

It is likely to show a fibre network rollout that expands on areas already announced under trial phases and the one-year rollout plan, as well as closely following the rollout of the accompanying transit network and 121 points of interconnect required to operate the long-term network.

But it will also shed light on the extent of delays to the network rollout, as a result of regulatory hurdles to approving the Telstra deal and political expediency in some areas.

Though NBN Co had indicated intentions to pass approximately 596,000 premises with fibre or fixed wireless connections by June this year in its first corporate plan in 2010, Quigley said in February that it had only reached 18,000 premises.

It also indicated in its first corporate plan of intentions to pass more than 1.72 million premises by June 2013, but it is expected numbers will fall short of this goal.

A second corporate plan, due annually, is yet to be approved for release by the Federal Government.