Nate Anderson:
Australia plans to do things… a bit differently. Within the next eight years, the Australian government will spend AUS$43 billion (US$38 billion) to build its own “world-class broadband infrastructure” that will deploy fiber to 93 percent of all Australian homes and bring 12Mbps broadband to everyone else. The network will be wholesale only and will be open access, enabling every ISP to use the fiber to offer services.
This is great for Australians, it really is. It would not be feasible here in the states given the difference in population densities, size and so forth. It does say something though for living in smaller countries.