5.3 Options for licensing

Option 1 - Individual Licensing

License applications are be prepared and certified by an Approved Radio Engineer or Certifier for each fixed point to point link. If the licence application is in accordance with licensing policies a licence would be granted by the Ministry and an annual administrative fee of $200 per fixed link transmitter would be incurred.

The details of each link would be recorded on the register of radio frequencies, and this enables robust interference mitigation when subsequent links are being engineered and certified. Engineering and certification is mandatory and this incurs an additional cost for the licence applicant.

The information on the Register of Radio Frequencies also enables a robust compliance and audit regime to ensure maximal utility of the radio spectrum resource.

Maintenance of band usage information ensures that future options for managing or re-farming the 70-90 GHz band are not curtailed.

The first in time’ priority is easily established using Part 12 of the Radiocommunications Act 1989 and the date of recording of the radio licence as captured in the Register of Radio Frequencies.

Option 2 – Non-exclusive Licensing

The MED would issue interested parties with an annually renewable non-exclusive nationwide licence at a cost of $300 per annum. This would apply to the user as licensee irrespective of the number of transmitters operated by the licensee. There would also be no requirement for links to be certified.

The MED would keep a record of all holders of the non-exclusive nationwide licence and this is information would be publicly available on the register of radio frequencies.

Each non-exclusive nationwide licensee would be required to keep and maintain technical data on the links that they have installed. This data might include transmitter and receiver pair make, model, location, date of installation, and period of operation. The licensee would be obliged to provide this data to other non-exclusive nationwide licence holders and the Ministry on request and at no charge.

The maintenance and provision of data ensures that:

• there is an ability for interference mitigation when planning and operating high-capacity radio links;
• there is the basis for dispute resolution should interference between links occur; and
• band usage information is available to assist the future management of the band should it be required.

Appendix 1 contains details of a possible implementation framework for this option. Within the mandatory regulatory framework, licensees could implement measures to streamline the coordination of new and existing high-capacity fixed links in the 70 – 90 GHz range. For example, licensees may chose to establish a voluntary code of practice, form an industry group, or to electronically publish the technical data relating to their links at a common internet location.

In the first instance interference is avoided via the licensee coordination process. However, should interference occur after the licensee coordination stage, then the avoidance, mitigation and/or resolution of that interference should be attempted directly by the affected parties using any and all technical means.

In the event that the affected parties can not manage interference then the Ministry of Economic Development would play an active role to resolve the situation.

Option 3 – General User Radio Licence

The MED would issue a General User Radio Licence to be utilised by transmitters of point to point services in the 70-90 GHz bands without them incurring an annual fee.

As band usage information is not easily available after a General User Radio Licence is implemented, there can be no guarantee of interference protection, nor can interference dispute resolution be pursued should it occur. Furthermore future options for band management are more difficult to implement.

An unlimited number of links would be able to be operated and there is no requirement to have links certified.

There is no basis for interference resolution within this type of licensing regime.

Preferred option: the Ministry’s view

Noting that initially the risk of inter-system interference will be low, the Ministry is of the opinion that Option 2 represents a suitable balance between the level of regulation required to mitigate or resolve interference, and the need to preserve future band planning and management options.

A comparison of the key features of the three licensing options is contained in Appendix 2.