Telstra, NSW education department sign $280m broadband deal

The upgrade of the telco's hybrid fibre coaxial broadband network will be able to provide download capacities of up to 100Mbps and increase upload capacities to 2Mbps for nearly 1 million homes, the telco claims.

The $280 million deal also comes in the midst of negotiations between Telstra and the Federal Government over its network assets and whether it will vend them into NBN Co as part of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The NBN is planned as a fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) optical fibre network -- the same technology being rolled out in the new NSW and Telstra deal.

The Federal Government has also recently made a push to force the separation of Telstra's wholesale and retail arms. While Telstra is trying to block the move, some analysts have called it a "once in a decade opportunity for its shareholders".

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