As the global financial situation worsens, the Terria consortium has had to seek alternative funding for its bid for Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN).
The consortium is the only credible competition to privatised former national provider Telstra for the bid.
Now, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, the consortium is having difficulty securing the required multibillion dollar investment capital.
Terria has estimated the build cost of the fibre network to reach around AU$15 billion ($10.7 billion).
Telstra, despite in the past quoting informal estimates as high as $18 billion, appears to have also settled on the $10.7 billion figure.
'We're talking about a build that's probably going to exceed (AU)$10 billion and could be as high as (AU)$15 billion in total, if all objectives were to be met,' Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo told reporters at a doorstop last week.
Terria has remained coy on where the additional funding will come from, but a spokesman insisted to the Herald that the consortium would place a bid by the November 26 deadline.
The Terria consortium consists of the SingTel-owned Optus, Telecom New Zealand and a number of Australian ISPs.
Meanwhile, Telstra communications chief David Quilty has admitted to The Australian the continuing devaluation of the Australian dollar would likely drive up the build cost, but declined to come up with a revised estimate.