Auction Summary - 3.6 GHz Wireless Access Service (2009/2010)

The ACMA accepted application over the counter (OTC) for additional licences at any time in regional and remote areas of Australia. The licences specified in the Results below were sold over the counter.

Area 1 - South East SA, Victoria, Tasmania and Southern NSW

Area 2 - Queensland, Northern NSW

Area 3 - WA, NT and Northern SA

Area 4 - Bunbury, Gippsland, Hobart and Hunter Valley

Area 5 - Queensland Coast

Area 6 - Murray River, mid North Coast, Northern Rivers and Wollongong/Shoalhaven

The term broadband wireless access services encompasses the variety of ways that telecommunications carriers, internet service providers and other service providers deliver a radio connection from an end-user to a core network, usually a public network, such as a public switched telephone network, the internet, or a local/wide area network. Examples of broadband wireless access service technologies include WiFi, WiMAX and IMT.

In February 2006, in response to national and international wireless communication market trends, the ACMA released a public discussion paper, Strategies for Wireless Access Services, to gauge demand for future broadband wireless access services and associated spectrum requirements. The discussion paper identified several frequency bands with the potential to support future broadband wireless access services.

In March 2006 the ACMA hosted the Wireless Spectrum Strategies seminar in Sydney, providing stakeholders with further opportunity to provide feedback on the range of issues addressed in the discussion paper.

The ACMA released a second discussion paper, Strategies for Wireless Access Services: Spectrum Access Options in December 2006. The responses to the consultation process were used as an input to the development of short, medium and long-term implementation options to address demand for the future deployment of broadband wireless access services. The key components of the ACMA's medium-term proposal included:

• to develop an early solution for users of broadband wireless access services in regional areas using spectrum in the 3.6 GHz band (3575-3700 MHz), while acknowledging that there will be a need to appropriately address the interests of incumbent users of that band;
• to review the planning and licensing arrangements for spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band (2500-2690 MHz); and
• in the longer term, to await the outcomes of government decisions about the use of spectrum in the 520-820 MHz band after the switch off of analogue television services.

On 14 October 2008, the ACMA announced its intention to allow the use of the 3.6 GHz band for the deployment of wireless access services (WAS) in regional and remote areas of Australia as a short to medium term solution for the demand for broadband wireless access services in these areas. This announcement coincided with the release of the paper Strategies for Wireless Access Services: Consultation Outcomes, which summarised the submissions and outcomes from the December 2006 consultation process. It also sought comment on preferred licensing options for the 3.6 GHz band.

Comment was sought on the technical and regulatory policies proposed for the band in the discussion paper, Release of the 3.6 GHz band for wireless access services (WAS), issued by the ACMA in April 2009.

In October 2009, the ACMA announced the release of the 3.6 GHz band to support the deployment of WAS in regional and remote areas of Australia. It advised that applications would be accepted during a series of two-week application windows, with the first for Area 1, covering areas of south-east South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and southern New South Wales, to commence on 16 November 2009.