PolicyTracker study contributes to Australian regulator’s policy recommendations

ACMA has published its advice to Australia’s communications minister on possible alternative licence conditions for spectrum licences. The regulator concluded that:

• Rollout obligations in spectrum licences are unlikely to be the most effective way to achieve broader coverage in Australia.
• Use-it-or-lose-it conditions are not well suited to Australia’s national wireless broadband spectrum-licensing frameworks.
• Place-based secondary licensing frameworks have the potential to promote competition and consumer choice in regional, rural and remote Australia and are more fit for purpose than use-it-or-share-it conditions.

ACMA commissioned PolicyTracker to write a report on spectrum utilisation requirements in wireless broadband licences as part of its research. The 160-page report benchmarked the utilisation conditions attached to mobile licences in Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the UK and the US.

We found that rollout and coverage obligations were the most widely used spectrum utilisation requirements, while use-it-or-lose-it and use-it-or-share-it requirements were rarely adopted.

A variety of coverage obligations were identified, with targets differing widely across countries, reflecting specific policy priorities.

Our analysis suggested that compliance with these obligations is mixed. Licensees often fulfil their obligations in a timely manner, or with minimal delays, but difficulties in meeting targets do arise, leading to more significant delays in operators achieving the required coverage.

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