International PerspectivesNew 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

FlexibilityTechnology 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 informationManagement 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

Competition1989• Market forces approach• Generic competition law

2000’s• Government policy used to shape

markets

2014• 700 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