After a year of testing between offerings from Microsoft and Google, Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT), has selected Microsoft’s Live@edu, according to a story in Australian IT.

Australia has become quite a battleground for hosted email services.  Last year, the New South Wales Ministry of Education selected Google’s Gmail to replace Outlook and Exchange for its 1.5 million students.  That service, while considerably cheaper than the Outlook/Exchange offering, still accounts for a 9.5 million dollar contract to SMS Management and Contracting, a Google partner, for  custom delivery of the premium tier Google Apps service. 

The free Live@edu offering comes with, with a 10GB mailbox, and access to Outlook Live, Office Live Workspaces, and Windows Live SkyDrive services, and Microsoft is confident in “holding off Google”, according to Neil Jackson, of Microsoft Australia:.

"Google is our main competitor in this space. We have about 3 million students worldwide on Live@edu, with many Australian universities already on the list," Mr Jackson said.

Live@edu, a free service, gives budget-conscious universities an opportunity to meet cutting-edge technology demands of students without outlaying large sums of money.

Live@edu currently hosts about 3 million students worldwide.  A similar offering for small businesses, expected to be called Outlook Live, and code named SkyLine, is expected but hasn’t as yet been officially announced.

Update  Here in the US, Ohio State University is switching too, for 60,000 students.  Thanks for the comment, ProfessorAsian!  Know of others? leave a comment!