FINAL REPORT - Stakeholders - Ofcom

limited to vessels registered by the flagging territories of the British Isles (two sovereign
countries and three Crown dependencies), such a scheme might in future be proposed for
extension to the European Union or CEPT. However the difficulties of attempting this are
recognised.
COUNTRY -
Recurring Annual
Cost for certain
types of Station
International
Aircraft Station
International
Ship Station
GMDSS
Land
Radionavigation
Station (SHF radar)
Australia £19.98 £19.98 £642 - £14,977
Canada £29.76 £29.76 £33.88
Germany £20.82 £6.82 £175.70
Hong Kong £10.50 £10.50 £4.20
Ireland £2.52.
Japan £22 £6
Lebanon £7.60 £7.60
Malta £78.50 £78.50
New Zealand £50.75 £50.75
Norway £28 £80
Pakistan £101 (max) £51
UK £350 (max) £20 £50
USA £5.79 £11.58
Table 7-13 Comparative cost of annual apparatus/licence/station renewal charges
The countries represented in Table 7-13 represent a broad spectrum of development with
wide ranging GDPs. The United States appears to represent particularly good value for
money for licensees; however the annual renewal fee is computed from a 10 year figure
which is the usual period of validity for such licences in the United States. The effect of
spectrum pricing can clearly be seen in the case of land based radar apparatus in
Australia, with 9 GHz equipment representing the lowest cost and 3 GHz the highest cost.
There appear to be no clear patterns concerning the level of fees and charges although in
61% of the 13 countries listed aircraft station fees appear to be below £30 whilst 69% of
ship station fees are less than £30, even an assumption that fees are generally intended to
cover costs cannot easily be explained from the spread of values in Table 7-13. The UK
fee for aircraft stations seems particularly high whilst Malta stands out as a country with
high ship station licences. In principle, the Consultant is of the opinion that Administrative
Incentive Pricing (AIP) should ideally be applied to all radiocommunication services, in
order to encourage the efficient and effective use of spectrum. However in view of the
international aspects of these systems including safety and operational considerations as
well as single market and European issues, an innovative approach would be required to
achieve such a development in Europe. This would be especially relevant for radar
systems, however bandwidth tariff bands must be carefully considered in order to provide
adequate incentives to reflect state of the art developments in technology. This matter is
also addressed in Chapters 4 and 8 of this Report.
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