Describing broadband as the communications infrastructure of the future, Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski announced a AU$50 million dollar stimulus package targeted at applications developers working on broadband related packages.

Beginning with a comment on Australia's tendency to quickly adopt new technologies, he went on to explain why the country needed a stimulus package in order to increase the rate of broadband connectivity.

-But while you can build the field of dreams, will they come?" Switkowski said after detailing the lengths to which the telco has gone over the last 12 months in order to rollout broadband services throughout the country.

The funding will consist of grants of up to AU$250, 000 granted by a board consisting of Telstra, government and IT industry representatives, targeted at educational institutions and applications developers.

Australia's incumbent telco will also invest in a range of advertising, educational and structural measures designed to increase the uptake and use of broadband in Australia. The funding, however, will be released through a series of different programs over the next five years, and no mention has been made regarding changes to wholesale pricing of broadband technologies.

-We recently took steps to provide lower entry point prices for the first-time users and our broadband rollout continues," Switkowski said, describing the packages announced at the congress as designed to fast-track development of devices and applications to stimulate the broadband market in Australia.

Switkowski also commented that although the IT and telecommunications industries were working closely in the Internet space, this convergence was complicated by the different technological backgrounds each sector faced.

-The IT community is not as aware of the communications industry or the complexity of running networks," he said.

Shadow Federal Minister for Information Technology, Senator Lundy, has described Telstra's broadband funding announcement as -highly condescending", and proof that the incumbent telco is not committed to investing in broadband in Australia.

Lundy went on to say that Telstra's failed e-Launceston project in Tasmania, to which Switkowski referred to in his speech, was again being used as an excuse that Australian consumers were not ready for broadband.

-The failure of this project evokes the analogy where Telstra has tied its own legs together, then used it as an excuse for not performing in the race," Lundy said.

Meanwhile, Shadow Minister for Communications, Lindsay Tanner, also slammed what he called Telstra's -belated and inadequate response to Australia's poor broadband performance".

Telstra's AU$50 million initiative would be better spent on direct broadband infrastructure rollout or through pricing reductions, rather than in grants and advertising, he said.

-In announcing several initiatives at the World Congress on IT, Telstra's has belatedly recognised that its broadband rollout in Australia has been well below par. In fact we are now ranked sixteenth out of 30 OECD member countries.

-Telstra's majority shareholder, the Howard Government, has sat by while Telstra has dawdled on broadband take up. Spooked by the collapse of the dot-coms, Telstra has stalled on its development of broadband," Tanner added.

Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved.
ZDNET is a registered service mark of CBS Interactive. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CBS Interactive.