There are signs that the National Broadband Network is already being squeezed out by private players, showing the costs of constant planning and delays.

Private telco TPG is pushing to install its own fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB) network in thousands of residential apartment buildings throughout Australia.

TPG’s plans are a significant threat to the NBN, as they will “cherry pick” multi-dwelling units (MDUs) in areas of the ACT, NSW and Victoria where the most profit can be made.

But the orchestrators of the NBN were planning on the income from these areas to help pay for less profitable installations.

Now, reports say NBN Co has been forced to take advantage of new regulations and install connections to around 6000 apartments by the middle of this year.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced a licensing condition last year that gave TPG until January 1 2015 to have its FTTB product ready for release, hoping that the short window would delay TPG’s plans and give NBN Co an edge.

Turnbull’s timeframe has compelled TPG to delay its rollout, causing other big telcos like Vocus Communications and Telstra to complain that the licensing condition is a ploy to curb private expansion, to the NBN’s benefit.

NBN Co saw the challenge coming, and announced late last year that it would aim new work at the lucrative apartment building market.

“We're rolling out where you can identify a high concentration of MDU’s,” said NBN Co’s chief customer officer John Simon.

“We would expect at some point that we would enter into an MDU that would have a competing technology set and we would continue to deploy.”