Project Update May 2006

The Ministry has received initial engineering advice on technical parameters for the new licences. A wider analysis of the overall FM band plan has been initiated in order to both resolve various marginal compatibilities between present licences and to give a consistent basis for the final engineering work. This work will also determine whether a new licence will be offered on a different frequency to that used at present. The possibility of frequency changes was foreseen in the earlier consultation process.

In addition, the Ministry wishes to make offers of licences for the full 20 year period from 2010 which can be settled and acquired prior to expiry of present licences. The wording of the Radiocommunications Act requires a successive management right to expire 20 years after recording on the register which means that any management right and licences recorded prior to the exact expiry date will have a term shorter than 20 years. The Government has introduced legislation to correct this wording and make some other changes to the Radiocommunications Act, although this will take some months to enact.

Good progress is being made on preparatory work for determining the exact offer price for each licence, but this work cannot be completed until the technical parameters of licences are known.

The above issues are expected to delay the issue of licence offers until the second half of 2006, although it is not yet possible to provide an exact date.

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