Telstra is by far the biggest internet provider in the bush.

Mr Anderson said many developed nations were rolling out broadband internet to more people and would provide a service with much greater capacity than Telstra was offering.

He reiterated that the government would not sell its remaining share in Telstra until it was satisfied with the telecommunications giant's rural and regional services.

But the debate about the Telstra sale had overlooked the more important issue of planning for the future of the telecommunications system and its services, he said in an address to an agricultural economics conference in Canberra.

Mr Anderson said Telstra was planning to provide broadband internet to 90 per cent of its customers by the end of next year.

However, the standard internet capability from the copper-based technology was only 256 thousand bites per second.

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