It has been estimated that a mandatory data retention regime would add at least $5 per month to every internet connection account, unless the government chooses to fund such a regime, which would cost many hundreds of millions of dollars to set up and to operate.Given that different telcos and ISPs currently retain different types of data for differing lengths of time, as determined by their individual business models, the implementation costs of this scheme will vary significantly, and will impact smaller and leaner operators harder than the bigger operators. Telstra, for example, as well as having a much greater capacity to absorb these costs, also already collects and retains (it is understood) much of the data the government is seeking for significant periods of time. Other providers, such as iiNet, retain much less data and in many cases delete that data quite quickly as they have no business reason to store it. These providers will therefore be required to create and store data that they currently do not.This scheme will therefore have significantly adverse effects on competition with the telco and ISP markets and may force some smaller operators out of business as well as creating new barriers to entry to the market. A joint submission by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association and Communications Alliance to the 2012 inquiry by the PJCIS estimated the cost of the scheme proposed by the then Government to be between $100 million for basic data capture and $500–700 million with IP addresses included. iiNet's upper estimate was $400 million.The result, of course, will be higher prices for businesses and consumers.