ACMA Licence Deferrals in Bushfire Impacted Areas

The ACMA has published a page on deferral arrangements for payment of radiocommunications licence fees, for licensees located in bushfire affected areas. The webpage is at the following Link The page has been developed in the context of the following possible scenarios:

a) because of bushfire damage, a licensee does not receive a renewal notice for their licence[1], and therefore not renew their licence within the required timeframe. If this occurs, the licence will ‘lapse’ and the assigned frequency may be re-assigned to another client and, in the case of amateur and maritime users, the licensee’s call sign will be re-allocated to another licensee; or

b) the licensee receives their renewal notice, but is not be in a financial position to pay for the renewal within the required timeframe.

The ACMA records indicate that there are approximately 1054 amateur licences (1029 of which are ‘non-assigned’ amateur licences – ie. not repeaters or beacons), which equates to over 80% of the licences impacted by the fires.

Note: The content on the page reflects existing regulatory arrangements that enable licensees to apply to the ACMA for deferral and/or instalment arrangements for licensing fees and conveys the ACMA’s disposition toward agreeing to applications for renewal. Please note that the ACMA does not have legal authority to waive licensing fees.

Licensing Allocation Section
Licensing and Infrastructure Safeguards Branch
January 22, 2020

Australian Communications and Media Authority

Page Last Updated: Wednesday 22 January 2020 at 15:9 hours by Robert Broomhead

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