The federal government has expressed confidence that Telstra would eventually become a partner for its national broadband network project which should reduce its mammoth cost once the rollout begins.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told ABC that NBN will stand on a much affordable budget and the project will be completed much sooner if and when Telstra gets involved.

He said that the government and Telstra are currently negotiating and "we've been in complex, detailed, lengthy discussions for the last four months and the fact that we're still talking is a good sign."

The $25 million NBN study released yesterday asserted that the broadband project would be viable without cooperation from any private company and would even deliver returns for the government by its 15th year.

The study recommended, however, that getting Telstra into the picture would result to operational and cost efficiency once the telco allowed the government to use its assets to expedite the deployment of NBN's fibre networks.

Still, Telstra is reportedly differing with the government in terms of cost and benefit for the company bur Senator Conroy gave assurance that "we can deliver a win-win situation, a win for Telstra shareholders and a win for Australians at large if we get an agreement."

He lauded Telstra for taking a constructive approach on the NBN deal and added that he is optimistic that a deal will go through, though he refused to divulge the exact figures at this time how cheaper the NBN will be once the telco becomes part of the team.

Senator Conroy hinted that the bipartisan talks "cover a whole range of assumptions there and some of those assumptions go to very sensitive commercial negotiations. So I'm not in a position where I can reveal some of that information."

He said that the focus for now is to deliver broadband service to all Australians via the NBN project and the government pitched for the project because Telstra had been greatly limited to extend its services across the nation.

Senator Conroy said that Telstra's network could only reach five capital cities and some areas down the coast of Sydney so the government must play the field, adding that "we believe that this is a good investment and it gets all of the taxpayers' money back, we believe this is exactly the sort of project that a government should step in and build."