"We had to take instructions that the government -- our shareholder -- gave to us which was to get a balance between regional and metro areas and also to achieve a balance across the state of Australia and to complete Tasmania by 2015."

Quigley said NBN Co also had to create the plan on the basis of the infrastructure available from Telstra and prioritise the growth corridors that were likely to have a high number of Greenfield sites, in line with the government's Greenfields policy.

"We prioritised the links we needed for our wireless network and for our satellite earth stations so we can provide high speed broadband for rural Australia as fast as possible," he said.

"Having done that, we then had to ensure we load balanced for our construction contractors and adjusted the build if it was likely to cause congestion in local communities.

"Finally we ensured we supported the four universities that we have been working with who are focused on new broadband applications including James Cook, University of Queensland, New England in Armidale, Wollongong and Melbourne universities."