New developments in the Australian communications industry

A number of further regulatory changes are likely to occur or be considered by Government in 2017. Changes to watch out for include:

• Spectrum is a key enabler of communications infrastructure. In 2015, the Government agreed to implement the recommendations of the Spectrum Review undertaken by the Department of Communications and the Arts, which concluded that Australia's legislative framework for managing spectrum is outdated and needs to be replaced. Implementation of the review's recommendations will require a wholesale re-write of Australia's Radiocommunications Act 1992. Although the Department undertook consultation on legislative proposals in early 2016 to inform the development of an exposure draft of a new Radiocommunications Bill, that exposure draft has not yet been released for comment.