back to article Mobile carriers face big ticket spectrum costs

Australian mobile carriers are turning activist in the lead up to the Federal Government’s final determination on the pricing for retaining their 800MHz mobile licences. According to a draft determination issued by communications minister Stephen Conroy late last year mobile network operators Telstra, Vivid Wireless and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Childcatcher

    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.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does VHA have that much cash?

    "The Australian Financial Review reports that the draft determination values the spectrum at $AU758 million to Telstra and $AU560 to VHA."

    *chuckle*

  3. paleoflatus

    Paleoflatus

    We currently have a Labour government in Canberra, that handles money badly. Consequently, our surplus has turned into debt and our taxes and charges are sky-rocketing. This includes new taxes on resources, CO2 etc. The higher spectral cost is only an increased tax on communications, after all. There will be more of the same until our next election in a year or so.

  4. FrankAlphaXII

    What frequency range do your Police Radios use in Australia? Or is it considered a secret? Because here in the United States nearly every Public Safety network from the Feds on down to the locals tend to use 800Mhz, as do most Private Radio nets, and mobile networks start at the 900Mhz range.

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