Canberra could up Telstra bid - update

The Australian government has confirmed it could raise its A$8bn ($6.12bn) bid for Telstra due to anticipated demand from institutions.

As telecoms.com reported Thursday, the government had indicated it could raise its bid due to strong retail demand with local reports suggesting the increase could go as high as A$10bn.

The Australian government owns 51.8 per cent of the incumbent and is understood to have received a surge of applications for shares in Telstra in the past few days.

The state had previously said that the size of the offering, which initially amounted to about one third of the government’s total holding, could be increased by up to 15 per cent, depending on demand.

At the same time Telstra announced a new range of business services at speeds up to 20Mbps using ADSL2+, on its newly upgraded national high-speed network which it says is more than 13 times faster than its predecessor.

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