New Zealand Licence Fees

On 6th December the New Zealand Regulator MED announced new Radio spectrum licence fees.

This report from the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters (NZART):

It was announced yesterday, via the MED Radio Spectrum Management web site that as a result of the Radio Fee's Review for 2007 - that the fee currently charged by the MED for repeaters, beacons and fixed links for the Amateur Service are not increasing, but remaining at the same level, ($50.00 per annum, reduced by 10% to $45.00 per annum if paid on-line).

Additionally it is noted first that the regulations include a ten percent reduction in licence fees for licence holders who undertake their own interference investigations and secondly that the cost for engineering the same licenses has increased from $300.00 to $400.00.

NZART extends it's thanks to the submission submitted by the two previous ALO's, namely Bruce Douglas ZL2WP and Mark Gooding ZL2UFI; as this no doubt lead to the successful case of at least keeping the fee's at their current
level. Members will recall that a figure of $250 p.a. was a possibility. This shows the value of the submission process and is good example of what NZART is doing for its members, and for amateurs as a whole.

As part of the press statement from the minister responsible for this fee's increase, David Cunliffe stated in part the following:

"Mr Cunliffe said there will be no changes to the amateur licence fees for repeaters, beacons and fixed links - but these will be included in a review of the amateur fees to be commenced in the New Year."

The new ALO Don Wallace ZL2TLL will be taking up this "new" review referred to by the minister when next meeting with the MED.

The new fee structure takes effect on 1 February 2008.
Stuart Watchman, ZL2TW, NZART Vice President

Radio spectrum licence fees
http://www.rsm.govt.nz/cms/licensing/licence-fees/current-fee-schedule

New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters (NZART)
http://www.nzart.org.nz/nzart/