Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee is expected to set a date for the bill's second reading soon after Parliament resumes on February 7 following the Christmas-New Year recess.
The proposed amendments to the bill have received support from all Northland MPs, local authorities and the business community.
They have also been strongly backed nationally by Federated Farmers and other New Zealand electricity supply lines companies.
Northpower public affairs manager Steve Macmillan this week compared the potential benefits to farmers of easy and affordable access to UFB with the introduction of electricity transmission to rural areas 80-100 years ago.
"High-speed communications with all the services now available in cities will be a game-changer for farmers," he predicted. "People these days are coming to expect ultra-fast broadband is a fundamental right like roading."
Mr Macmillan said if the bill was passed Northpower would still contact landowners before going on to private land to put fibre optic lines on to existing power poles.
As fibre was rolled out, a fibre breakout point would be put at every property - meaning the farm or rural property could choose to easily connect to UFB fibre with no cost attached for most connections.
The fibre breakout point would be a legal right for each property owner or occupier whose land was crossed by the new fibre.
This would effectively give them access to UFB identical to that in cities. Rural properties where UFB was not deployed would also benefit from improved local Wi-Fi services, as a result of better backhaul fibre lines, serving communities with much better speeds than are now possible.
The Northland Mayoral Forum said in a submission to the Commerce Select Committee about the bill that the proposed law change was common sense.
The leaders of the three Northland district councils and the regional council said Northpower had investigated building a UFB fibre network throughout the Kaipara and Whangarei districts which had estimated the build cost at about $120 million, with a further $100m to acquire easements to hang one extra wire from existing poles.
To access broadband by using existing power poles at no extra cost would provide a cost effective economic boost to Northland and enhance the quality of life for the region's residents, the select committee was told.
"Rural people will be able to obtain access to services currently unavailable to them," Mayoral Forum members said.
"Rural school and distance learning students would have better access to educational opportunities. Farmers will receive access to agricultural and environmental information which will assist innovation and profitability."