The Australian's Jane Schulze reports that a triumvirate of media groups and telcos has joined together to seek up to $1.1 billion from the Australian goverment to build a regional wireless network.

The triumvirate, which calls itself the AUSalliance, consists of pay TV company Austar, wireless broadband provider Unwired and telco infrastructure group Soul -- they're bidding together for funding under the Australian government's Connect Australia program.

The three companies' existing business plans already anticipate the provisioning of services to about 55 percent of regional Australia -- the additional funding, they say, would support deployments in less-populated rural areas.

"The companies plan to operate their networks and businesses separately, but have agreed to use each others' infrastructure on a wholesale basis," Schulze writes. "They also argue their proposal utilizes technologies that are 'significantly' lower-cost than fiber-based proposals."