Licences for sound broadcasting services - modifications

1. Scope

This policy concerns modification of licences in Crown owned Management Rights used for sound broadcasting.

The policy clarify whether a proposed change to a transmit location or frequency should be treated as a modification or a new licence application.

This policy must be read in conjunction with the Spectrum Licence Certification Rules for Crown Management Rights (the Certification Rules).

2. Background

A licence in a Crown Management Right typically requires agreement of both the Rightholder and the Manager for any modification to that licence. The Radiocommunications Act 1989 (the Act) and Radiocommunications Regulations 2001 (the Regulations) provide a process for any agreed modifications to be recorded on the Register of Radio Frequencies through use of a “Form 8”.

Modifications to a licence must be able to be certified under the Act and also meet the Crown’s policy requirements.

The Act does not limit the scope of modifications using a Form 8, but these policy requirements limit the circumstances under which a modification is acceptable, and require payment for any additional value of the modified licence.

3. Policy

The policy is derived from decisions of March 1991 where Cabinet:

Agreed that where a new licence right can be created following initial tendering of licence rights within a management right (without impingement or alteration of an existing rights), such rights should be allocated as required by the market, and be allocated by tendering in due course unless they are self evidently of little value, in which case they should be made available in return for payments covering the costs of making them available.

Therefore:

• If a new licence can be created without impingement or alteration of an existing licence, the new licence should be allocated through a market mechanism; and
• If a new licence cannot be created without impingement or alteration of an existing right(s) then the new licence can be treated as a modification of the existing licence with a commercial value assessed and payable for such modification.

4. Application

There are two basic tests that need to be undertaken:

1. Determine if the proposal is a modification, or should be treated as a new licence;
2. Determine if the proposal is technically compatible with other licences, as required for certification under the Act.
    

These tests are of special significance for MF-AM licences because of night time propagation conditions.

First test

The process is to assume that the current licence remains unmodified, and to treat the proposed modifications as a separate new licence and then assess whether the separate new licence would impinge on the rights of the current licence.

The rights defined on a licence for broadcasting are generally created under s.48(1)(a) of the Act and provide a right to transmit radio waves and a right to have no interference. It is the right to have no interference which is relevant in determining if impingement occurs from any proposal.

Rights to have no interference are described by Protection Locations and MPIS levels on individual licences. The impingement test is to be undertaken to the protection locations following the rules in the Certification Rules. Note that this test is more stringent than methods such as assessment of overlapping coverage (i.e. two licences may not have overlapping coverage, but there may still be degradation to the MPIS values specified at the protection location(s).

The results of this test determine how the proposal is to be treated.

Second test

Ensure that the proposed licence is technically compatible with other licences in the same area or on the same or adjacent frequencies in the normal way. If the proposal is being treated as a modification, the existing licence should be ignored, but if it is a new licence then the existing licence must be taken into account.

4.1. VHF-FM Licences

The application of the policy is relatively straightforward for VHF FM licences as any potential impingement can be assessed relatively easily at the prescribed Protection Locations. The methods prescribed in the PIB39 Certification Rules must be used. It should be noted that this impingement test is significantly stricter than the simple overlap of 66 dBuV/m contours or coincidence of areas receiving this field strength.

4.2. MF-AM licences

These licences have two distinct requirements to be considered to ensure that any potential impingement is considered for both daytime and night time propagation conditions.

The Certification Rules prescribe the full requirements for assessing technical compatibility and for certification. The following paragraphs are provided for completeness, but do not replace the Certification rules.

The majority of Protection Locations are used for calculations under daytime propagation conditions and this makes determination of impingement at these locations straight forward using the ITU-R Recommendation P.368 Ground Wave propagation curves as outlined in the Certification Rules. These calculations can be undertaken on the basis of a single interfering signal.

A single protection location is used for calculations under night time propagation conditions and these calculations should therefore be done to this location. Licence conditions identify the protection location that relates to night time protection which is typically the actual transmitter site.

The calculations are to be done on the basis of the summation of the six strongest interfering signals in accordance with the Certification Rules. The 0.5 dB tolerance on the summation is to be applied.

The presence of any impingement is then used to determine whether the proposal is to be treated as a modification, or as a new licence.

The second test is then necessary for the normal engineering certification of the proposed licence. This ensures that other licences are not unduly degraded by the proposal. In many cases this test will determine the overall acceptability of the proposal.