International Perspectives New Zealand’s Radiocommunications Act Review

Radio spectrum management in NZ

MRs are tradable property rights Spectrum in MRs – 471 MHz below 1 GHz – 929 MHz between 1 and 5 GHz – 3.6 GHz above 20 GHz In 2013/14, 97% of all licences were engineered by private sector Radiocommunications Act 1989 establishes – Management rights (MR) regime (2/3 of Act provisions) – Radio licencing regime – General user licencing regime – Approved engineers regime – Disputes processes – Compliance and enforcement – Transitional provisions (1/4 of Act provisions)

NZ Act Review Key issues – Flexibility vs certainty – Competition – Spectrum sharing – Interference

Flexibility Technology neutral MRs Changes by Spark (formerly Telecom) under their 850 MHz MR : – AMPS – DAMPS – CDMA – Wide band CDMA No regulator involvement

The Act requires limited information Management rights Frequency boundaries, Adjacent frequencies emission limits Power floor, and Protection limit. Spectrum licences Details of the licence holder Transmission frequencies Protection area Term Ability (or not) to modify the licence and the permissions required

Limited processes specified Public Information Brochures (PIBS) are non statutory documents setting out: – Band plans – Licencing rules – Allocation processes – Renewal processes – Requirements for the approved radio engineers’ regime

Competition 1989 Market forces approach Generic competition law 2000’s Government policy used to shape markets MHz auction included ownership restrictions and implementation requirements

Spectrum sharing Currently consulting on TV white space rules Dynamic access technologies potentially problematic

Interference management

Thank you