In one of the first cases of its kind, an Australian telecommunications company has gone to court to force US phone companies to pick up a greater share of the cost of Internet phone services between the two countries.

Internet traffic between Australia and the United States now flows primarily from Australia to the US. But outmoded Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, based on historic flow in the other direction, are costing Telstra $15 million (£10.2 million) per year, according to Mr Gregory C Staple, the company's Washington DC-based lawyer.

A telecommunications analyst said Telstra appears to have a point and that its complaint highlights the need to update Internet regulations to reflect the worldwide computer network's evolution outside the US. Foreign telecommunications companies are subsidising their US counterparts by as much as $300 million, Mr Staple said.

"This is a big topic. This case calls into question the global economics of the Internet infrastructure," he said.

In a petition filed earlier this month, Telstra is asking the US Court of Appeals in Washington to force the FCC to review its Internet phone payment rules.

Mr Staple said in the early days of the Internet, traffic was largely one-way, from the United States to Australia.

As a result US telephone companies insisted that the Australians pay the full cost of the infrastructure, instead of the traditional 50-50 split for voice telephone traffic between two nations.

Now, Mr Staple said, 70 per cent of the data traffic between the two countries is from Americans accessing Australian sites, including so-called mirror sites operated by several high-volume Web businesses.

Mr Staple said Telstra went to court because the FCC did not address the imbalance of payments in an overhaul of international phone service settlement rates released in August.

"I think it's a legitimate complaint," said Ms Barbara Ells, who tracks telecommunications companies for Zona Research of Redwood City, California. "I think there are going to be a lot of changes in the payment structures" across a variety of services connected to the Internet, she said.

Cases similar to Telstra's illustrate the inadequacy of the US government's hands-off policy toward regulation of the Internet, she said.

"The status quo is based on the technology of how many years ago?" Ms Ells said. "This is another example of how, by not doing anything, we're giving telecommunications companies special treatment."

Ms Sue Fleming, a spokeswoman for AT&T, one of several American companies potentially affected by the Telstra complaint, said AT&T supports the recent FCC settlement review. She said Telstra's complaint is outside the scope of the FCC ruling.

"We see this as a trade issue more than a regulatory issue," Ms Fleming said.

WorldCom, another telecommunications company with a possible stake in the Telstra action, did not return a call requesting comment. A spokesman for the FCC could not be reached for comment.

Mr John Stanton, Telstra's regional director for the Americas, said the US needs to recognise that the growing globalisation of the Internet would require payment adjustments, both for reasons of fairness and so other parts of the world can beef up their on-line infrastructure.