With an election on the horizon, the Federal Govt in Australia yesterday announced a new grant of nearly $1 billion to help build a high-speed broadband network in rural areas. Business has been demanding improvements to the broadband infrastructure for some time in order to kick-start the online economy here, which is seen to be falling behind many other developed countries.

So this announcement is good news for Australia, but not so good for Telstra, the recently privatised telecommunications company, who have lost out in the bid to their main rival Optus, who are working in a joint venture with Elders. This group is also investing a similar amount of money into the project which expected to provide speeds of at least 12 megabits per second to people in rural areas within two years.