All very well for towns
It would seem that whilst some formula for getting money from the licence fee is all well and good it's the other details that get overlooked.
One big issue as even we in the UK know is coverage, and given the size of australia and the population to cell tower ratio you start to see a point of were it's not worth installing, so you don't. Why should you as most of yoru customers in the dense coverage area's. This is were you end up with the odd token location were the telco will pick a landmark that's out in the sticks and ask to put a cell tower up to cover that and get yaaaboo'd. This then becomes there standard on in the stick's coverage. Of course things are not that bad in the UK, but there again were alot smaller than Australia and have more people to a almost 3:1 ratio. What does this mean. Well if there smart they will factor this in and make coverage more accomodating for the telco's. But I suspect they will let it roll, grab as much for the spectrum as possible and then down the line complain at the coverage the telco's are doing in the outback reach's.
Bottom line, there is no formula for costing out licences, like most things it gets down to what people are prepared to pay. If the current suppliers lose out, what happens to there basestations already covering the area. Fun times and the only people who are garanteed to lose are those who are on the bottom ring, ie joe public. Dammed if they charge alot, dammed if they don't. But at least they could address any coverage issues now or it won't happen until next renuewal.