Budde said the last-mile copper network will be sufficient for the next decade as fibre is pushed deeper into networks.

A prominent Sydney-based telecommunications analyst, who requested anonymity, labelled the comments hype and said many network operators have large amounts of idle fibre.

"It may well be that an operator will only [activate] fibre in a trench as it is needed," he said.

"Telcos will put in enough fibre in trenches as they will need in the foreseeable future. Dark fibre isn't necessarily dark to lock-out competition, because it is expensive to activate it."

"Telcos try not to break into fibre, so it is reasonable that it may bypass towns."