AMTA recently provided a submission to the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) in response to their paper: ‘Spectrum Trading: consultation on trading and third party authorisations of spectrum and apparatus licences.’

In its submission, AMTA confirmed its support for a robust secondary trading market but acknowledged that the level of trading activity to date had been limited. AMTA suggested that there were two key reasons for the poor functioning of the secondary trading market in Australia: licence tenure and the transaction costs associated with trading.

AMTA described how these issues were impeding trading and went on to suggest how the issues might be addressed. In relation to transaction costs, this included urging ACMA to work with the Australian Tax Office to introduce tax legislation to specifically deal with the swapping of spectrum licences to ensure a tax neutral outcome, and with relevant State and Territory Governments to fast-track the removal of stamp duty on non-land business conveyances.

To address the barrier to trade created by uncertain licence tenure, AMTA suggested that ACMA make it clear that there is a presumption of continuity of licence with incumbents given first right of refusal at the time of renewal, and that spectrum holders who have acquired spectrum through secondary trading will be subject to the same conditions as primary spectrum holders.