Fees for apparatus licences

We charge a yearly fee for apparatus licences.

Licence fees include:

• fees for services
• a licence tax

We adjust our taxes each year for inflation.

Different fees apply to commercial broadcasters [link to licence fees for commercial broadcasters].

The apparatus licence fee schedule (updated 30 April 2019) sets out the current fees for apparatus licences.

Apparatus Licence Fee Schedule (1.32 MB)

You should only use the schedule as a guide. You may want to ask an accredited person to help you or get legal advice.

You can also check if you are eligible for a licence fee exemption or concession.

How to pay your fee

If we give you a licence for more than 1 year, you can pay the fee upfront or in yearly installments. If you don’t pay on time, you will need to pay upfront in the future.

If your licence is for 1 year or less, you will need to pay upfront when we issue the licence.

When your licence is due to expire, we may offer to renew it. Our policy on apparatus licence renewals explains our process.

Apparatus licences may be for a transmitter or receiver.

We charge a licence tax for all transmitters. We only charge a tax for a receiver if you haven't licensed the transmitter. 

The amount we charge depends on if the licence is an:

• assigned licence
• non-assigned licence
• new licence
• renewal

The amount you need to pay for an assigned licence depends on:

• how many frequencies you need
• the amount of bandwidth
• the frequency
• location of the site
• transmitter power

We base the licence tax on the population density of an area. 

Apparatus licence fee density area maps

High density—Apparatus licence fee density area maps including Sydney/Woolongong, Melbourne/Geelong and Brisbane/Gold Coast (876.79 KB)

Medium density—Apparatus licence fee density area maps including Perth, Adelaide and Newcastle (656.49 KB)

Low density—Apparatus licence fee density area maps including East Australia, West Australia, Tasmania and Darwin (1.06 MB)

The boundaries for density areas are available in:

Shapefile (435.35 KB)

Placemark (1.11 MB)

We also use these to determine some taxes:

• the Australian Spectrum Map Grid (ASMG)
• hierarchical cell identification scheme

The Australian spectrum map grid (842.55 KB)

More information is in the licence fee schedule:

Apparatus Licence Fee Schedule (1.32 MB)

You have 45 days to pay your invoice.

If you don’t pay on time, we may refuse your application or renewal. We may also give your frequency to someone else.

You can appeal our decision.

If you give up your licence, we may refund part of your licence fee. We do this automatically.

This legislation helps us determine how we charge for apparatus licences:

• Radiocommunications Act 1992
• Radiocommunications (Receiver Licence Tax) Act 1983
• Radiocommunications (Receiver Licence Tax) Determination 2015
• Radiocommunications (Transmitter Licence Tax) Act 1983
• Radiocommunications (Transmitter Licence Tax) Determination 2015
• Radiocommunications Licence Conditions (Apparatus Licence) Determination 2015
• Radiocommunications (Specified Radiocommunications Receivers and Types of Transmitter and Receiver Licences) Determination 2014
• Radiocommunications (Interpretation) Determination 2015
• Radiocommunications Taxes Collection Act 1983
• Radiocommunications Taxes Collection Regulations 1985
• Radiocommunications Taxes Collection (Penalties on Unpaid Tax) Determination 2015
• Radiocommunications (Charges) Determination 2017

If you have questions about licence fees, call our customer service centre on 1300 850 115 or email us.