Radiocommunications (Spectrum Re-allocation—850/900 MHz Band) Declaration 2020

I, PAUL FLETCHER, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, having had regard to a recommendation given to me by the Australian Communications and Media Authority under subsection 153F(1) of the Radiocommunications Act 1992, make the following declaration.

Dated 27 October 2020

Paul Fletcher

Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts

1  Name

  This instrument is the Radiocommunications (Spectrum Re-allocation—850/900 MHz Band) Declaration 2020.

2  Commencement

 (1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.

Note: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.

 (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.

3  Authority

  This instrument is made under subsection 153B(1) of the Radiocommunications Act 1992.

4  Interpretation

Note 1: A number of expressions used in this instrument are defined in the Act, including the following:

(a) ACMA;

(b) re-allocation deadline;

(c) re-allocation period;

(d) spectrum;

(e) spectrum licence;

(f) spectrum re-allocation declaration.

Note 2: See also section 5, in relation to re-allocation deadline and re-allocation period.

 (1) In this instrument:

Act means the Radiocommunications Act 1992.

Hierarchical Cell Identification Scheme or HCIS means the Hierarchical Cell Identification Scheme used as a part of the Australian Spectrum Map Grid 2012 document published by the ACMA on its website, as the document existed at the time this instrument was made.

 (2) In this instrument, a reference to a part of the spectrum includes all frequencies that are greater than the lower frequency, up to and including the higher frequency.

5  Spectrum re-allocation

 (1) The following parts of the spectrum are subject to re‑allocation under Part 3.6 of the Act in accordance with subsection (2):

 (a) 814 MHz to 825 MHz ;

 (b) 859 MHz to 870 MHz;

 (c) 890 MHz to 915 MHz;

 (d) 935 MHz to 960 MHz.

 (2) The parts of the spectrum referred to in subsection 5(1) are subject to re‑allocation under Part 3.6 of the Act:

 (a) by issuing spectrum licences under Subdivision B of Division 1 of Part 3.2 of the Act (see section 153L of the Act); and

 (b) with respect to the named area in the table in subsection (4).

 (3) For this spectrum re-allocation declaration:

 (a) the re-allocation period is the period beginning at the time this instrument commences and ending on 30 June 2024; and

 (b) the re-allocation deadline is 30 June 2023.

 (4) The area (named area) referred to in column 1 in the following table is to be ascertained as the composite of the areas, described using identifiers from the Hierarchical Cell Identification Scheme, set out in column 2:

Note 1: The HCIS is a naming convention for areas on the Australian Spectrum Map Grid 2012 (ASMG), which is a system used by the ACMA to define geographic areas for radiocommunications licensing. A document describing the ASMG and HCIS, as well as spatial datasets describing each HCIS area could, at the time this instrument was made, be found on the ACMA’s website (http://www.acma.gov.au).

Note 2: A tool to convert lists of HCIS area descriptions, such as the list contained in the below table, into Placemark files to allow these areas to be visualised using computer mapping software could, at the time this instrument was made, be found on the ACMA’s website (http://www.acma.gov.au).