On 2 June 2021, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced the implementation of reforms to spectrum pricing. The reforms include reducing tax rates for services above 5GHz, introducing a ‘systems price’ for co-located earth stations authorised under the same licence and introducing an additional price discount for ‘micro’ land-mobile services.
Consistent with the Government’s Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) requirements, the Spectrum Pricing Review has been certified by the ACMA as meeting the requirements of a RIS.
The Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) does not assess the quality of independent reviews and RIS-like documents used in lieu of a RIS, but does assess whether the options analysed in the independent review are relevant to the regulatory proposal. The OBPR assessed that the options analysed in the independent review are sufficiently relevant to the regulatory proposal.
The agency estimates there will be no change in the average annual regulatory costs.