Austar wants subsidy for rural broadband

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 10 September 2005 15:11

IT Policy - Regulation

Austar which has spectrum suitable for wireless broadband services covering most of Australia's regional and rural population, says it plans to spend around $40 million rolling out services to the more densely populated areas of regional Australia, but wants government subsidies to go into more sparsely populated areas. Announcing the company's' half year results yesterday, CEO John Porter hit out at the HiBiS scheme which has seen Telstra receive more than 60-percent of its funds for providing broadband in regional Australia. Austar significantly increased its spectrum holdings through a swap with Unwired last month.