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Current and upcoming spectrum auctions
Information about current and upcoming spectrum auctions can be found on this page.
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Assignment of 3.30 – 3.34 GHz for non-national broadband
As a part of Radio Spectrum Management’s assignment of 3.3 – 3.4 GHz for regional and private networks, we are assigning two 20 MHz channels (between 3.30-3.32 GHz and 3.32-3.34 GHz) for non-national / regional broadband.
Summary of assignment process for 3.30-3.34 GHz radio spectrum
- Two 20 MHz channels will be available in two auction lots between 3.30-3.32 GHz and 3.32-3.34 GHz.
- Licences will be available for up to 10 years, from 1 July 2023 (or date of licencing following this) through to 30 June 2033.
- These licences are for regional broadband serving end users / customers, which we expect to take the form of base stations providing wide-area macro coverage.
- To open the band, RSM will assign a 6-month right for a winning operator to place licences within a Territorial Local Authority (TLA). There will be two allocations available for assignment per TLA, reflecting that there are two 20 MHz channels available.
- RSM will run an expression of interest (EOI) process. If only one party is interested in a lot, then that party will be offered the 6-month right, without having to pay an auction value. Where two or more parties are interested, the lot will be auctioned.
- Once the 6-month right expires, further licences will be offered on a ‘first in first served’ basis.
- Pricing will consist of:
- An annual resource charge for use of the spectrum, per 20 MHz to be charged per licence (but only payable on the first five licences an operator places within a Community and Local Board area).
- An annual licence fee (per licence).
- The auction value (if applicable).
A Two-stage process of spectrum access: ‘exclusive right to license’ followed by ‘first-in-first-served’
Rather than assigning exclusive use of a TLA for the 10-year period, we will assign a time-limited exclusive use period (6 months). In this 6-month period the winning operator will be able to register licences for its desired base stations at specific point locations within a TLA through their Approved Radio Engineer. Once this 6-month period expires, other parties will be able to establish further licences on a first-in-first-served basis, provided these licences meet the proposed technical conditions and hence do not interfere (certified by an Approved Radio Engineer) with existing licences.
All licences will be subject to a resource charge (set out below), as well as other conditions, including a requirement to use-or-lose the licences.
Expressions of interest for 6-month exclusive rights to spectrum have now closed
All Lots (i.e. both 20MHz channels in every TLA) received two or more expressions of interest. On this basis we now announce an auction for all 6-month exclusive rights.
Auction 26, 6-month exclusive right to license in 3.30 - 3.34 GHz.
This auction has now closed.
RSM will now be confirming the Provisionallyy Successful Bidder for all lots that have been sold, and bidders may be contacted by RSM as part of this work. Details of the Provisionally Successful Bidder for each lot is publically available below, consistent with the Auction Catalogue.
Notification of auction result
The auction catalogue, which includes the list of lots:
A sample contract for a 6-month exclusive right to place licences within a TLA:
Exclusive rights agreement for licences within 3.0 - 3.34 GHz [PDF, 298 KB](external link)
More information on this auction is available(external link)(external link) — Skylarc
Approach to licensing
Regardless of whether a licence is created during the ‘exclusive right to license’ or ‘first-in-first-served’ period, a licence agreement between the Crown and the prospective licensee will be entered into with specific conditions on the licence including use-or-lose provisions. The template licence agreement is provided below.
In line with previous non-national spectrum assignments, an acquisition limit will apply to licences in the 3.30 – 3.34 GHz band. An operator will be permitted to place licences in no more than 15 TLA areas and no more than one of these TLA areas may be a major urban centre (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, or Christchurch).
A sample licence agreement for licences in the 3.30 – 3.34 GHz band is available here:
Licence agreement (for licences within 3.30 - 3.34ghz non-national spectrum) [PDF, 382 KB]
Pricing
Pricing will consist of:
- An annual resource charge for use of the spectrum, per 20 MHz to be charged per licence (but only payable on the first 5 licences an operator places within a community and local board area).
- An annual licence fee (per licence).
- The auction value (if applicable).
The resource charge will be billed per licence annually and is based on the nominal cost per person and estimated population coverage, per 20 MHz channel.
The annual resource charge will be calculated based on a population coverage estimate that uses population of the Community and Local Board area where the transmitter is located. The definition of Community and Local Board areas is visible on Stats NZ.
Definition of Community and Local Board areas(external link) — Stats NZ
Visualised by applying the Community and Local Board 2023 layer:
Geographic Boundary Viewer(external link) — StatsNZ
Each licence within a Community and Local Board area (up to a cap of 5) will be paid on the basis of a portion (1/5th) of the population. Once 5 licences have been placed in a Community and Local Board area by a single provider, any further licences placed by that provider in the same Community and Local Board area would not attract an additional resource charge, however, annual licence fees would still apply.
While population coverage will vary depending on the topography and population density of the specific Community and Local Board area, the above approach will be used consistently across the country as it is unfeasible to efficiently calculate exact population coverage of differing regions.
The calculation would be as follows:
Charge per 20 MHz=Area pop count*(Nominal population cost)/5*No.of years remaining
Where:
- Area pop count is the 2023 population estimate for the relevant Community and Local Board area in question.
- Nominal population cost is the per person value of 20 MHz of national radio spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, for 1 year, set to $0.085 per person per year indexed against inflation.
- GST is not included in the price above.