Telecommunications companies are calling for "urgent clarity" on the distribution of government funds to help them collect and keep customer information for national security purposes.

Key points: Telcos required to keep data from October 13

Telcos required to keep data from October 13 $131m allocated in 2015 federal budget

$131m allocated in 2015 federal budget Representative body says no information on money allocation yet

Representative body says no information on money allocation yet Telcos lodging, working on implementation plans

Service providers are required to start keeping information from October 13 under the Federal Government's compulsory data retention scheme.

This year's federal budget allocated $131 million over three years to help telcos meet some of the cost of complying with the scheme.

But the industry's main representative body said over four months later it was "very disappointing" there was not more information on how that money would be divided between hundreds of service providers.

"The latest advice is that the money will be available in the current financial year, which is a pretty wide window," Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton told the ABC's AM program.

"That's really tough, particularly among smaller providers, who are having to make investment decisions right now without knowing how much of the money they're spending is going to be left unfunded.

"So we really urgently need the Government to provide some clarity in that area."

The Communications Alliance represents large industry players like Telstra, Apple and Optus, but also dozens of smaller service providers working to meet Government's deadline.

"There's more than 400 service providers in Australia and I think they are in a range of readiness for the regime," Mr Stanton said.

"Some have lodged implementation plans, others are still working on them to try and come up with a clear plan to get to compliance, and I think there are some that are pretty much behind the game as well, so it will be interesting to see how many get their plans in by October 13."

The Communications Alliance said it was reassured that the Federal Government would not immediately start enforcing the new rules once the scheme is up and running.

"We've had some encouraging feedback from the Attorney-General's Department, they say that their focus in that period immediately after October 13 will be on collaboration and encouragement and on helping companies to get to a state of compliance or to complete their implementation plans," Mr Stanton said.

"So I'm reasonably confident we won't see anyone dragged into enforcement procedures, at least in the early stages."

Mr Stanton said they would continue to lobby to Government to add to the $131 million already allocated to the industry.

"Certainly nothing's been promised along those lines," he said.

"We have read reports with some bemusement that suggest that almost $3 million of that money will be soaked up by the administrative cost of handing out the rest of the funds, so that's a little disappointing if it's true."