Expiring spectrum licences (stage 2) – information gathering, and views on uses of frequency bands and alternative licence conditions

At the request of the Minister for Communications, we sought views on the use of alternative licensing conditions, including rollout obligations and their effectiveness in achieving broader coverage, and use-it-or-lose-it (UIOLI) and use-it-or-share-it (UIOSI) conditions and their effectiveness in achieving more efficient spectrum use. 

We provided advice to the minister in November 2024. Our advice was informed by the submissions we received to this consultation. It was also informed by an international study we commissioned from PolicyTracker.

You can access the submissions we received below.

Our advice concludes that:

• Rollout obligations in spectrum licences are unlikely to be the most effective path to achieve broader coverage in Australia.
• UIOLI 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. They are more fit-for-purpose than UIOSI conditions.

A secondary licensing framework, enabled by legislative change, would allow us to facilitate place-based services to use parts of the spectrum that incumbent licensees are either not using or do not plan to use over the short to medium-term. The minister responded to our advice in February 2025. She asked ACMA to work with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts to further explore the merits of a secondary licensing framework.

Next steps

Stage 3 will now begin in Q1 2025, when we publish our preliminary views for further consultation. These will include outcomes for each band, licensing arrangements, licence conditions, and spectrum pricing.

Once the original consultation closed, we opened a reply to comment period. This allowed stakeholders to provide feedback and respond to the views made in others’ submissions. 

Feedback received will be used when forming our preliminary views on expiring spectrum licences (ESLs).

Submissions received during the reply to comment period are available below.

This consultation begins stage 2 of the expiring spectrum licence process; information gathered will inform preliminary views for stage 3. 

We are seeking information from incumbent licensees about their past, current and future uses of the spectrum.

We encourage prospective alternative users to tell us how their use of spectrum covered by ESLs could enhance a range of outcomes, including encouraging competition, promoting efficiency and innovation, and improving services in regional, rural and remote Australia.

We seek views from all stakeholders on:

• approaches to examining use under existing spectrum licences
• issues around resilience and temporary disaster responses that arise in the context of spectrum licences and the ESL process
• our views on the uses of the frequency bands that are conducive to promoting the long-term public interest, and any additional evidence or analysis related to these views
• the effectiveness of rollout obligations to achieve improved coverage, UIOLI and UIOSI conditions to achieve more efficient use of the spectrum, any evidence or analysis to support these views and input on the practical implications of applying such conditions.