Radiocommunications (Licensing and General) Regulations (Amendment) 1992 No.
309
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1992 No. 309
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Transport and Communications
Radiocommunications Act 1983
Radiocommunications (Licensing and General) Regulations (Amendment)
Section 93 of the Radiocommunications Act 1983 (the Radcom Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Radcom Act.
Section 24 of the Radcom Act provides that the Minister may grant to an applicant a licence to operate and to possess specified radiocommunications transmitters or radiocommunications transmitters included in a class of radiocommunications transmitters.
Schedule 1 to the Radiocommunications (Licensing and General) Regulations (the Regulations) specifies different classes of licence for the purposes of licensing under section 24 of the Radcom Act.
Under section 89D of the Broadcasting Act 1942, a "licence warrant" is granted to a broadcast licensee, permitting the operation of a transmitter for the purposes of the broadcasting service. Under section 89DA of the Broadcasting Act a "re-transmission permit" may be granted for the purposes of re-transmitting a broadcasting service. After 5 October 1992, when the main provisions of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 come into force, broadcasters using the radiofrequency spectrum to deliver or retransmit a broadcasting service will require a Radcom Act licence to operate the relevant transmitters.
Section 10 of the Broadcasting Services (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 1992 (the Transitional Act) continues licence warrants and retransmission permits in force as transmitter licences under sections 24B and 24 of the Radcom Act respectively. Schedule 2 to the Transitional Act inserts section 24B into the Radcom Act to provide for the granting of transmitter licences to commercial or community broadcasters for operating in the "broadcasting services bands".
The amending regulations make provision for the necessary additional radiocommunications transmitter licence classes in Schedule 1 to the Regulations.
Subsection 24(4) of the Radcom Act provides that a transmitter licence granted under section 24 comes into force on the day on which it is granted and, subject to subsection 24(5), remains in force until the expiration of the day specified under subsection 24(5).
Paragraph 24(5)(b) of the Radcom Act provides for a period of longer than twelve months to be prescribed as the maximum period of a transmitter licence.
The amending regulations also fix the maximum licence period for national (ABC and SBS) and retransmission (of existing broadcasting services) services.
"(A)ncillary communications service network" (secondary services transmitted with the main service using the same frequency eg teletext) is a term defined in subregulation 2(1) of the Regulations for the purposes of the transmitter licence classes referred to at items 10A and 10B of Schedule 1 to the Regulations. The amending regulations amend the term, and remove items 10A and 10B to remove the need for a separate radiocommunications licence to provide "ancillary communications services".
The amending regulations also remove the "Earth station, Australian satellite service, Class A" licence class at item 23 in Schedule 1 to the Regulations and amend item 24, to allow a lower fee to be charged for earth stations used in conjunction with the AUSSAT satellite service.
NOTES ON CLAUSES
Regulation 1 ties commencement of the draft regulations to the commencement date of the main provisions of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (5 October 1992).
Regulation 2 is formal.
Subregulation 3.1 amends the definition of "ancillary communications service network" to make it clear that a separate transmitter licence is not required to authorise a transmitter licensee to provide an ancillary communications service, other than a commercial or community broadcasting service. Such commercial and community broadcasting services will automatically receive a "(B)roadcasting service transmitter (broadcasting services bands)" licence under the Radiocommunications Act. The capability to provide ancillary communications services is often wasted because licensees are unwilling to take out additional licences. Use of a service's ancillary communications capacity should reduce congestion in the radiofrequency spectrum.
Subregulation 3.2 removes the reference to "22A" from the definition of "AUSSAT receive-only station" in subregulation 2(1) of the Regulations. This a consequential amendment to amendments 4.1 and 5.3.
Subregulation 3.3 inserts a reference to "24B" into subregulation 2(5) of the Regulations which refers to the classes of transmitter licence in Schedule 1 to the Regulations.
Subregulations 4.1 and 5.3 respectively omit paragraphs. 5B(3)(a) and (b) and substitute a new paragraph 5B(3)(b), and omit items 22 and 22A from Schedule 1 to the Regulations, and substitute a new item 22. These amendments allow a lower fee to be charged for earth stations used in conjunction with the AUSSAT satellite service.
Subregulation 4.2 prescribe maximum licence periods of 5 years for "broadcasting service transmitter (national broadcasting service" and "broadcasting service transmitter (re-transmission)" licences.
Subregulation 5.1 removes superfluous categories of ancillary communications network licences and is consequential on the amendment in subregulation 3.1. Subregulation 5.2 inserts new licence classes relevant to commercial and community broadcasting licences (item 17A), ABC and SBS services (item 17B), retransmission services (item 17C), temporary broadcasting services (item 17D) and engineering tests for broadcasting transmitters (item 17E) into Schedule 1 to the Regulations.
Subregulation 6 ensures that the changes under proposed subregulations 4.1 and 5.3 do not deprive existing "Earth station, Australian satellite service, Class A" and "Class B" licensees of a licence.