What are they for?
Section 299 of the Radiocommunications Act 1992 and section 12 of the Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005 allows the ACMA to enter into a Deed of Agreement with the satellite operator to control coordination and radio interference management of the network. The ACMA will not issue a space licence for use of Australian spectrum until it has entered into such an agreement.
Deeds of Agreement are intended to provide certainty to the ACMA and to the satellite operator by establishing:
- A framework that sets out how the ACMA and the operator will meet Australia's obligations to the international community in relation to the satellite network
- A mechanism that allows the ACMA to allocate responsibility for specific satellite networks to a particular satellite operator.
The satellite operator must agree, in writing, that the space objects comprising the network are Australian space objects for the purposes of the Radiocommunications Act 1992 (sections 5, 10A, 16 and 23).
