Frequently Asked Questions

All radiocommunications equipment needs to be licensed before it can be legally operated in Australia, however you don’t need to apply for all types of licence.

There are three categories of radiocommunications licence:

Below is an overview of common apparatus licence types.

• Land-based Systems - all transmitting and receiving stations are located on land:
  • - Land Mobile Repeater/CB Repeater: communication between a fixed-location station and one or more mobile devices
  • - Point-to-point: communication between two fixed stations only
  • - Point-to-multipoint: a fixed station communicating with multiple other fixed stations (e.g. SCADA system)
  • - Ambulatory System: direct communication between handheld or vehicle-mounted portable radios only
  • - Public Telecommunication System (PTS): communication between end-user devices and a core broadband network
  • - Area Wide Licence (AWL): A miscellaneous licence for technology-agnostic usage in a specific area typically for deployment of 5G technologies
  • - Fixed Receive: for the protection of a receive-only station that cannot transmit
• Sea-based Systems - communication with maritime ship stations on maritime frequencies:
  • - Maritime Coast: a coast station communicating with associated ship stations. Has various options, including:
    • Limited Coast Assigned System: uses a specific maritime channel assigned by an Accredited Person or the ACMA
    • Limited Coast Non-Assigned System: uses standard, shared channels. Applications for this licence type are usually processed by the ACMA directly
• Air-based Systems - communication with aircraft or airport/aerodrome operations on aeronautical frequencies:
  • - Aeronautical licence: communication between ground stations and aircraft on approved frequencies (e.g. an airline operator’s “company band”)
• Space-based Systems - communication between earth stations and satellites or spacecraft:
  • - Space Receive: authorises reception of transmissions at a specific satellite/satellite network from earth stations in Australia
  • - Space licence: authorises transmissions from a specific satellite/satellite network to earth stations in Australia
  • - Fixed Earth: authorises transmissions from an earth station to a specific satellite/satellite network
  • - Earth Receive: authorises reception of transmissions at an earth station from a specific satellite/satellite network

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are the regulator for communications and media services in Australia. In the world of radiocommunications, they set the rules and manage the planning of radiofrequency spectrum, and can take enforcement action in the case of breaches of legislation, codes or standards.

The Accredited Persons Scheme "outsources" the highly technical frequency coordination and licensing tasks to qualified private professionals. The ACMA may grant accreditation to an applicant that meets required educational qualifications and has sufficient work experience in the field of radiofrequency assignment. Accredited Persons (APs) bring speed, efficiency and cost savings to the radiocommunications licensing process.

Spectrum Engineering Australia was the first company to have staff accredited by the ACMA under the Accredited Persons Scheme in 1996, and we have been assisting our clients with their licensing needs ever since. Our proprietary software and engineers’ combined decades of experience allow us to provide fast, personalised service at a competitive price in the rapidly-changing world of radiocommunications.

Licences can be granted in as little as a day or two provided we are supplied with sufficient data and there are available channels. For first-time clients or for licensing in congested areas, we suggest you allow additional time for our team to process your application.

If you identify a licensing requirement for your project, get in touch with us and we can assist you with a licensing timeframe.

There are two components to the cost of an ACMA licence:

1. Our coordination and licensing fees – these depend on the type of licence, and will be advised to you prior to licensing. If you would like an indication of our fees before submitting an application, please contact us.
2. ACMA fees and charges - you can use our online ACMA fee calculator to determine your licence costs. Note that the ACMA charge will only be incurred when you take out a licence, whereas the ACMA tax will be incurred every year.

For many licence types, we will assess applications on a no upfront cost and no obligation basis. We will advise you if any upfront costs will be incurred, so you can get started on a licence application at any time using our online facilities or forms.

At Spectrum Engineering Australia, we keep extensive records of past licences from the last two decades. If you can provide details of your lapsed licence, then we should be able to retrieve the specifications from our archive, re-assess it against the current rules, and if all is well, secure a replacement licence quickly and easily.

The Radiocommunications Act 1992 requires all relevant high power transmitters on communal sites to be labelled with its frequency assignment number (as recorded in the Register of Radiocommunications Licences), along with the statement “Do Not Remove”. Please note:

• Public Telecommunication Service (PTS) and Broadcast transmitters are excluded from this requirement
• High power transmitters are fixed transmitters with an EIRP of >2 Watts
• Communal sites have 2 or more transmitters within 200m of each other and have frequencies assigned in the 30 MHz – 300 GHz range

Additional information regarding the labelling requirements can be found in the Radiocommunications (Labelling) Determination 2023.

The above labelling is required in addition to an electrical product’s Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM) or similar compliance label.

Point-to-point bands are divided into low frequency blocks and high frequency blocks with channel numbering that pairs a low frequency channel with a high frequency channel, as shown below.

Point-to-point links are usually bidirectional with one end of the link transmitting on a high frequency and receiving on a low frequency (known as High Site Sense or Tx Hi), and the other end transmitting on a low frequency and receiving on a high frequency (known as Low Site Sense or Tx Lo). When a new link needs to use a site where there is an existing link in the same band, the site sense established by the existing link should be maintained. In the example shown below, any new 6.7 GHz point-to-point links at Blackheath should be Tx Hi.

The correct site sense should always be maintained to maximise the utility of a communications site by ensuring that sufficient frequency separation is maintained between co-sited transmitters and receivers, thus minimising the possibility of on-site interference.

If a proposed new link has incompatible site sense in one band and the site sense can’t be reversed, then an alternative band should be used wherever possible.

An undesirable situation similar to the mid-band gap scenario can arise between channels across different microwave bands (e.g. the 6.0 GHz/6.7 GHz and 7.5/8.0 GHz bands), so to minimise the potential for interference across these inter-band gaps, co-sited links where both bands are licensed should be assigned in opposite site sense, i.e. if Blackheath is Tx Hi in the 6.7 GHz band, then ideally it should be Tx Lo in the 6.0 GHz band.

Even if site sense is followed correctly, on-site interference may occur across a mid-band gap. A mid-band gap refers to the guard band between the low frequency block and high frequency block in a point-to-point band as shown below.

Issues can arise due to the mid-band gap when the highest channel and lowest channel in a band are both assigned at the same site. For example, take the following situation:

• Licence 1: Ch 1 assigned
  • 40 MHz bandwidth
  • Vertical Polarisation
  • Tx Freq: 6800 MHz
  • Rx Freq: 6460 MHz
• Licence 2: Ch 8 assigned
  • 40 MHz bandwidth
  • Vertical Polarisation
  • Tx Freq: 7080 MHz
  • Rx Freq: 6740 MHz

Note that there is only 20 MHz of guard band between Licence 1’s transmitter and Licence 2’s receiver. This situation is not currently defined in ACMA’s RALI FX3 coordination criteria and should be avoided if possible, but may not cause a problem in practice – Licence 2’s radio may have sufficient filtering to cope with the small guard band.

Some Land Mobile and Point-to-Multipoint services can benefit from licensing supplementary stations which operate on the same frequency as a master station, and are designed to improve coverage within the service area of the master base station. They can be invaluable in areas of difficult terrain or extensive clutter, though they add complexity to the assignment and licensing process.

Supplementary transmitters are licenced in a similar manner to their master stations. There are height and power limits that are designed to ensure a supplementary station does not extend the coverage area of the licence.

The Hierarchical Cell Identification Scheme (HCIS) was developed by the ACMA to describe the geographic areas of Australia in terms of a grid structure based on the Australian Spectrum Map Grid (ASMG).

• Level 4: two-letter identifier. Size: 3° of latitude x 3° of longitude
• Level 3: three-letter identifier. Size: 1° of latitude x 1° of longitude
• Level 2: four-letter identifier. Size: 15’ of latitude x 15’ of longitude
• Level 1: five-letter identifier. Size: 5’ of latitude x 5’ of longitude
• Level 0: six-letter identifier. Size: 1’ of latitude x 1’ of longitude
• Level 00: seven-letter identifier. Size: 20” of latitude x 15” of longitude

HCIS identifiers or (HCIS codes) are used by ACMA for population-based tax calculations, and for the sizing of Area Wide Licences.

A device boundary polygon is used to ensure that a radiocommunications device’s emissions do not extend beyond the authorised geographic area of a Spectrum Licence and some types of Area Wide Licence. The polygon is calculated using the device’s technical characteristics, terrain data and a specified propagation model for all radials around the transmitter, and the resulting device polygon is then compared with the licence boundaries to determine whether the device will cause an “unacceptable level of interference” as defined in the Radiocommunications Act. Note that a device boundary polygon differs from a coverage plot - it is more like a potential interference plot.

Device boundary polygons can be a key factor in sizing an Area Wide Licence.

AWLs are a complicated form of licensing that requires a two-stage process and ideally a bit of forward planning. It is helpful to know what type of equipment will be used in your network before you start planning your AWL area(s).

Stage 1: Size and apply for your AWL

An AWL gives you exclusive access to a particular frequency range in a particular geographic area, both of which you will specify in your AWL application. The difficult part is planning the specific area(s) that you will need, because all of your transmitting stations need to fit in the area(s), and unless your device meets the definition of a “low risk transmitter”¹, the transmitting stations’ device boundary polygons also need to fit within the area(s).

This is where the forward planning is helpful – if you intend to expand your network in the future, there’s no guarantee that you will be able to licence the new areas/frequencies that you’re interested in, so it may be better to take out an AWL that covers the full extent of your planned network as soon as it is practical.

Once you have sized your area and selected your preferred frequency range, you can apply for your AWL. Assuming your area and frequency range does not clash with another AWL application, your licence can then be granted by the ACMA, leaving you to focus on Stage 2.

¹ A low risk transmitter’s maximum total radiated power is ≤ 28 dBm per occupied bandwidth for the 3.4/3.8 GHz bands and ≤ 23 dBm per occupied bandwidth for the 26/28 GHz bands

Stage 2: Registration of devices

All transmitters that don’t meet the definition of a “low risk transmitter” must be registered in the ACMA’s Register of Radiocommunications Licences before they can be legally operated. Devices must meet the coordination requirements specified in the ACMA’s Radiocommunications Assignment and Licensing Instruction (RALI) documents, and this includes ensuring that the device’s boundary polygon does not extend beyond the AWL’s geographic boundaries; this is why Stage 1 is so important. If the device meets all the coordination requirements, it can be registered by an Accredited Person, and may then commence operation.

Many organisations will not have the in-house expertise to size an AWL area correctly or register devices. Spectrum Engineering Australia can assist you with all aspects of AWL planning, licensing and device registration. Contact us today.