Australia's economic stimulus creates national broadband infrastructure

When Australia finally announced its long-awaited and much debated superfast National Broadband Network (NBN) on April 7, it wasn't really big news. Neither was Prime Minister Kevin Rudd describing it as the biggest infrastructure project in the country's history. The big news was that Australia is the only government in the world that has a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus package centered on the creation of broadband infrastructure.

Rudd announced the establishment of the NBN, admitting that Australian broadband is lagging and that a superfast national network is the only way to "turbo-charge Australia's economic future." The country will invest $30 billion USD over the next eight years for broadband infrastructure...