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VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria will tender for Internet infrastructure projects worth up to 300 million euros ($380 million) in 2015, speeding up a 1 billion euro-package promised to telecoms firms, the government said on Friday.
In July, Austria had said it would offer tenders for an initial 200 million euros as part of plans to invest some of the proceeds from a controversial mobile frequency auction, which is now the subject of a court case, into broadband infrastructure.
Spending on the projects will only start in 2016 no matter when the tenders begin.
The public investments are designed as a subsidy to help telecoms companies build infrastructure giving high-speed Internet access to remote areas, for examples in the Alps, where such investments are especially expensive.
The government also aims to generate jobs and growth at a time when the economy is sluggish.
An Austrian court is set to rule by November whether to annul the 2013 auction for mobile frequencies which brought the state 2 billion euros, but which some telecom companies say was flawed.
Hutchison Whampoa's Austrian unit Drei and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile appealed against the sale, which was then Europe's most expensive for fourth-generation (4G) frequencies per head of population.
Hutchison withdrew its appeal after Austria announced the 1 billion euro broadband infrastructure plan.
It is unclear how the final court ruling might impact the investment project.
The Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology in charge of the plans is optimistic that the ruling will not delay the investment and that the auction will not have to be repeated, a spokesman said.
($1 = 0.7884 euro)
(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Crispian Balmer)