A number of ICT firms have expressed fears that the federal government may change the R&D Tax Incentive in Tuesday's budget, making their existence in Australia that bit more difficult.

Optus's decision to acquire the Australian rights to English Premier League (EPL) football seems to be having the desired effect and paid off handsomely for the number two telco, according to new research.

The Federal Government will conduct an inquiry into the outage suffered by Telstra last week that led to problems with triple zero calls. Some sources are saying that Telstra may even be penalised with a fine for failing to keep the service running, although this has not been confirmed.

Consumer advocate CHOICE has launched an electricity bill checking service, as new analysis shows consumers can save up to $1,500 on their electricity bill. Choice thinks its service should be used instead of the commercial ones on offer.

The Australian Government offers grants and tax incentives for the startup community and its investors, but according to one tech startup it is still very difficult to get the right level of support for a startup in Australia to truly thrive.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has granted a restricted authorised deposit-taking institution licence to volt bank limited, a digital bank that plans to initially offer a few services.

If you take up one of the new "unlimited" plans from Vodafone or Telstra, you know that you get at least 40GB of data at full speed before speeds slow to a max of 1.5Mbps, but Think Mobile thinks its plans are still a better deal with 80GB full speed for $48.

And of course, there's plenty more so for all the news visit www.itwire.com.

Have a great day!

Stan Beer, Editor in Chief, iTWire

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