National ICT Australia (NICTA) received an additional $185.5 million over four years to continue its research operations in areas including telecommunications, health and utilities management, and promote PhD IT training.

The institution is co-funded by the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, and the Australian Research Council, and has created four start-up companies.

The Do Not Call Register, established in 2006 for $17 million by then communications minister Helen Coonan, has been injected with $4.7 million to prevent unsolicited phone calls from businesses. Up to $3.7 million will be sourced from telemarketer fees, , paid to access the blacklist phone number register. The register, which lost some $300,000 in operating costs last year, collected a record $147,400 fine from Dodo for 67 breaches of the list.

The government committed up to $100 million to kick-start a national energy smartgrid initiative, to link renewable energy initiatives to the $43 billion NBN. The scheme will form part of the National Energy Efficiency Initiative and launch a demonstration project to show where and how smart grids and meters can be used.

Telecommunications and energy industry experts say the government may face resistance from energy utilities that must be included in the design and deployment of the NBN. They say the majority of NBN revenues will come from the use of services such as smart grids over the network.