Nineteen applicants have received grants of up to AU$250,000 from the Telstra Broadband Fund, which was announced last year to provide cash and bandwidth contributions to support the development of new broadband services..
Telstra still has not found any companies willing to cough up the minimum AU$1 million investment required to unlock the "big project" part of the fund, which would see Telstra match the investment dollar for dollar to a total of AU$15 million. Many industry pundits had regarded the "big project" component as an attempt by Telstra to silence critics who were complaining the telco heavyweight was not spending enough to promote broadband.
Of the AU$4.6 million distributed from the fund in the first round, AU$4.25 million was handed out in cash and AU$350,000 in bandwidth grants. The grants leave Telstra with AU$5.75 million in cash to distribute for initiatives in the remaining rounds, as well as AU$19.65 million worth of bandwidth.
"The board does see bandwidth as an important part of the Telstra Broadband Fund and are looking at ways to better utilise this component of the broadband fund," a Telstra spokesperson told ZDNet Australia , adding that the relative distribution of funds and bandwidth in the first round merely indicated the style of applications received.
Projects that have received support from the fund include:
- HealthShare, which aims to allow clinicians to communicate with each other and with their patients anytime, anywhere, using high quality secure video, audio and data delivery.
- An Internet based livestock recording and feedback application initially targeting the beef industry.
- Software that aims to enable broadband ISPs to offer superior video programming.
- A digital music distribution application that protects copyright.
- "I Can Read", a broadband reading and literacy application.
- Real time document collaboration for the construction industry, to enable plans, drawings and 3D architectural models to be shared and concurrently edited.
