How Much Does a Radio Licence Cost in Australia? What the ACMA Actually Charges

Ask what a radio licence costs in Australia and you will usually get one of two answers. Either a vague one, or a large one.

The vague answer explains that the ACMA prices licences on a range of technical criteria rather than applying a flat rate. That is perfectly true, and it is no help at all when you are trying to put a number in a budget.

The large answer arrives as a quote. Somebody wants a repeater at their depot, the figure that comes back has a comma in it, and there is no breakdown attached to it.

Both answers obscure the same thing. Once you know the licence type, the frequency, the bandwidth, the location and the transmit power, the annual tax follows from a published table and a short piece of arithmetic. You can estimate what the ACMA will charge before you speak to anybody at all. What follows is that calculation, worked through with real figures from the current schedule.

The Short Answer

A land mobile licence, one 12.5 kHz UHF frequency, one transmitter, new licence. That is a common shape of licence for a business running a two way radio system, and this is what it costs:

Same radio, same frequency, same bandwidth, same paperwork. The location moves the annual tax by a factor of 47.

All figures are calculated from the ACMA apparatus licence fee schedule, edition 2026-07, and they exclude GST. They are calculations from the published rates rather than a quote, and the ACMA’s assessment of an individual licence is the authoritative one.

The Two Things You Are Actually Paying

This is where the confusion usually starts, because two different payments get bundled together into the phrase “the licence fee”.

The tax is the annual charge for occupying spectrum. It is a Commonwealth tax, it recurs every year for as long as you hold the licence, and it is the number that varies enormously. It is calculated from the frequency, the bandwidth, the location and the transmit power.

The administrative charge is what the ACMA charges for doing the paperwork. It is a one off per transaction and it is a flat figure read from a table. It varies with the licence type and, for some options, with which side of 30 MHz your frequency sits on, but it does not vary with the density area or with how much bandwidth you use. A new land mobile licence above 30 MHz carries an issue charge of $498 per spectrum access. Renewing that same licence carries $4 per access.

There is a timing condition on that $4 which is worth knowing, because getting it wrong is expensive. The renewal charge applies where the renewal request reaches the ACMA within 60 days of expiry. Leave it later than that and the schedule treats the licence as a new issue, so a two access licence goes from an $8 renewal charge to a $996 issue charge.

The practical consequence is that the first year and every year after it are different numbers, and the gap can be large:

If someone quotes you a single annual figure for a licence, they have either averaged those or quoted you the first year and left you to discover the second.

How the Tax Is Calculated

The schedule sets a rate in dollars per kilohertz. That rate depends on two things: the frequency band the transmitter sits in, and the density area its location falls into. You multiply the rate by your bandwidth, apply a power factor if you qualify for one, pro rata it if the licence runs less than a year, and that is the tax for one spectrum access.

Two details in that chain cost people money when they estimate by hand.

The minimum tax applies per spectrum access, not per licence. The floor is $43.75, and it is applied to each access before the accesses are added up. A two frequency licence in a remote area does not pay $43.75. It pays $43.75 twice.

The rounding happens once, at the licence level. Round each access to the nearest dollar and then add them, and you can land a dollar or two away from the correct figure. On its own that is trivial. As a signal that you have the order of operations wrong, it is not.

Bandwidth means channel spacing, not emission bandwidth

The bandwidth that goes into the calculation is not the necessary bandwidth of your emission. The schedule prices spectrum on the amount of bandwidth denied to other services, which in practice is the channel spacing.

This matters because the two numbers differ. Read an 8.5 kHz emission designator off the equipment when the band plan is on 12.5 kHz channels, and you will understate the tax by about a third. Where a band plan lists several spacings, the schedule takes the smallest one that is greater than or equal to your necessary bandwidth.

Why Location Moves the Number So Much

The ACMA sets a different rate for each of four density areas, and the spread is not gentle.

The first thing to understand is that “density area” is not a synonym for “city”. The schedule defines the areas as named geographic zones, and there are only ten of them. Everything outside those ten is remote.

That list catches people out, because it does not follow the state capitals. Perth and Adelaide are capital cities and they sit in medium density. Darwin is a capital city and it sits in low. Hobart falls inside the Tasmania area and Canberra falls inside East Australia, so both of those are low as well. Only Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, together with Wollongong, Geelong and the Gold Coast, attract the high density rate.

The practical effect is worth spelling out. A licence in Perth is taxed at $713 where the same licence in Sydney is taxed at $2,062, and in Canberra or Hobart it is $118. Assume “capital city means the top rate” and you will overstate a Perth budget by roughly a factor of three and a Canberra one by a factor of seventeen.

For a land mobile licence in the 403 to 520 MHz band, the rates in the current schedule are:

The remote rate for this band is genuinely zero. A remote area land mobile licence on a 12.5 kHz channel therefore pays the minimum tax and nothing further. The reason sits in what the density areas represent: the location weighting in the schedule reflects the density of services and the demand for spectrum in an area, and in remote Australia both of those are low.

That single fact reframes the whole cost question for mining, pastoral, and regional operators. If your transmitters are remote, the annual tax on a two frequency repeater licence is $88, and your real cost is the one off administrative charge and whatever you pay someone to do the frequency work. The recurring spectrum cost is close to noise.

It reframes it the other way for anyone inside one of the three high density areas. There the tax is the dominant cost of holding the licence, it recurs annually, and it scales directly with how much spectrum you ask for.

The Five Levers

For a given licence type, five practical inputs dominate the tax: bandwidth, frequency band, transmit power, licence term and density area.

The licence type itself sits above all five, because it decides which rate table you read in the first place. The published rate in dollars per kilohertz is not a raw number. It already has the normalisation, the location weighting and the licence type adjustment built into it, which is why the same bandwidth in the same band and the same density area is taxed at one figure for point to point and quite another for land mobile.

Starting from a high density area UHF land mobile licence on one 12.5 kHz channel, with an annual tax of $2,062:

A few things fall out of that table that are worth stating plainly.

Bandwidth is linear and it is the lever you control most directly. Asking for 25 kHz when 12.5 kHz would carry the traffic doubles the annual tax for as long as you hold the licence. On a two frequency repeater in a high density area, that decision is worth about $2,000 a year, every year.

The power discounts are large and widely missed. A factor of 0.1 for low power is a 90 percent reduction in the annual tax, and micro power at 0.05 is a 95 percent reduction. The definitions are specific rather than a matter of judgement. The schedule treats low power as a device radiating no more than 8.3 W EIRP and designed to operate within a 2 km radius, and micro power as no more than 1.7 W EIRP within 200 m. Eligibility is also restricted by licence type, and that list matters: point to point links are not on it, land mobile is. If your system genuinely fits one of those definitions, this is the largest single reduction available to you.

Band choice is a cost input, not just an engineering one. UHF is roughly twice VHF for the same channel width in the same location. That will not and should not drive a propagation decision, but it belongs in the comparison when the bands are otherwise close.

The $940 That Rarely Gets Explained

Here is the part that seldom reaches the person actually paying the invoice.

The administrative charge for issuing a new licence is $498 per spectrum access. But where the frequency assignment is certified by an accredited person, the schedule replaces that with a Division 9 charge of $28 per spectrum access.

On a two frequency repeater licence:

That is not a discount anyone negotiates. It is in the fee schedule, and it applies because an accredited person has already done the frequency assignment work that the ACMA would otherwise do.

The honest framing is this. You are still paying the accredited person for the assignment, so this is not free money. But the ACMA charge drops by $940 on a two frequency licence, which offsets a meaningful part of that fee, and you get a coordinated frequency out of it rather than one the ACMA picked. On a larger licence with more spectrum accesses the saving scales with every one of them.

If you want the detail on what an accredited person can and cannot certify, we wrote that up separately in What Is an ACMA Accredited Person?.

A Worked Example You Can Check

The ACMA publishes one complete worked example in the fee schedule, under “How to calculate your assigned licence fee”. It is worth walking because it pins every step.

A new point to point licence, two transmit spectrum accesses, 12.5 kHz each, in the 403 to 520 MHz band, high density.

1. The rate for point to point in that band and density is $41.2484 per kHz.
2. Tax per access: 12.5 kHz x $41.2484 = $515.605.
3. Neither access is below the $43.75 minimum, so the minimum does not bite.
4. Sum: $515.605 + $515.605 = $1,031.21.
5. Round once, at the licence level: $1,031.
6. Administrative charge: $498 per spectrum access x 2 = $996.
7. Total: $2,027.

Note how different that is from the land mobile figures above, for the same bandwidth, the same band and the same density. Point to point is taxed at $41.2484 per kHz where land mobile is taxed at $164.9935 per kHz, a factor of four. The licence type is itself a major cost input, and it is determined by what your system actually is rather than by anything you choose.

What the ACMA Fee Is Not

The number you have calculated is what the Commonwealth charges. It is not what a licence costs you to obtain, and the gap between those two is where most of the confusion in the market lives.

Sitting on top of the ACMA figures, in a typical commercial engagement, are:

• Frequency assignment and coordination. Somebody has to find a frequency that works at your site and does not interfere with the incumbents, then certify it. That is professional work and it is charged as such. It is also what unlocks the $28 charge described above.
• Site and system data. Coordinates, antenna heights, patterns, ERP, and the interference analysis against nearby licences.
• Equipment, installation, programming and commissioning, none of which are licensing costs at all but frequently arrive on the same invoice.
• Ongoing renewal, which is the annual tax plus $4 per access, and which continues for as long as you hold the licence.

A bundled price that covers all of that is a legitimate thing to sell. What is not reasonable is being unable to see how much of it is the ACMA’s tax and how much is not. Now you can work out the first number yourself, and ask about the rest.

Practical Rules for Budgeting a Licence

• Budget two numbers, not one. First year and ongoing differ by the issue charge, which on a multi frequency licence is most of a thousand dollars.
• Establish the density area before you estimate anything. It moves the tax by more than every other lever combined.
• Ask for the bandwidth you need, not the bandwidth that is convenient. It is linear, it recurs annually, and it is the lever most often left on the table.
• Check power discount eligibility against the schedule for your licence type. A factor of 0.1 is worth checking for.
• Count your chargeable spectrum accesses correctly. A duplex repeater that transmits on two frequencies has two chargeable transmit spectrum accesses rather than one, and both the tax and the administrative charge are levied on each of them. All transmit accesses are chargeable, and receive accesses are chargeable only when the licence has no transmit access at all.
• Use the channel spacing, not the emission designator. Getting this wrong understates the tax by about a third on a 12.5 kHz channel.
• Price the accredited person route against the direct route including the $470 per access difference in the ACMA charge, not just the professional fee.
• Renew inside the 60 day window. A renewal reaching the ACMA more than 60 days after expiry is treated as a new issue, which replaces a $4 per access renewal charge with a $498 per access issue charge.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a two way radio licence cost in Australia? For a single UHF frequency on a land mobile licence, the ACMA charges an annual tax between $44 and $2,062 depending on the density area, plus a one off $498 issue charge for a new licence. A duplex repeater is charged on two spectrum accesses, so the tax is calculated twice. In a high density area, meaning the Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane zones, that is about $5,121 in the first year and $4,133 a year after that. In a remote area the same repeater licence is about $1,084 in the first year and $96 a year after.

Is the ACMA licence fee annual or one off? Both. The tax is annual and recurs for as long as you hold the licence. The administrative charge is per transaction: $498 per spectrum access to issue a new land mobile licence above 30 MHz, and $4 per access to renew it.

Why is my licence fee so much higher than someone else’s for the same radios? Almost always the density area, which is set by where the transmitter is, and which on a 12.5 kHz UHF channel moves the annual tax from $2,062 in a high density area to $44 in a remote one. After that come bandwidth, licence type and transmit power. The radio brand or model is not itself a fee input, although the characteristics of the licensed system certainly are, because they determine the bandwidth, the power, the frequency and the licence type that the calculation runs on.

Does using an accredited person make the licence cheaper? It reduces the ACMA charge substantially. Where an accredited person certifies the frequency assignment, the issue charge falls from $498 to $28 per spectrum access, which on a two frequency licence is $940. You are separately paying the accredited person for the assignment work, so whether the total is lower depends on that fee, but the ACMA component definitely falls.

Why does a repeater cost about twice as much as a simplex licence? Because a duplex repeater transmits on two frequencies, and that is two chargeable transmit spectrum accesses rather than one. The tax is calculated on each access and the results are then summed, and the administrative charge is levied on each access as well. A licence with a different arrangement of transmit and receive frequencies is counted the same way, on its chargeable accesses, so it is the access count that drives the figure rather than the word “repeater”.

What is the cheapest apparatus licence available? In tax terms, a remote area licence. In the 403 to 520 MHz land mobile band the remote rate is zero, so the tax falls to the minimum of $43.75 per spectrum access. Add low or micro power eligibility and a narrow channel and you are at the floor.

Do these figures include GST? No. The fee schedule’s figures exclude GST. Confirm the GST treatment of your particular transaction with the ACMA or your accountant, since the tax and the administrative charge are different kinds of payment.

How accurate are these numbers? They are computed from the rates published in the current schedule, so they are exact for the inputs given. They remain an estimate of your licence, because your own licence has real coordinates, a real density area and a real licence type that have to be established first. The ACMA publishes the schedule as a guide rather than as legal advice, and its assessment of an individual licence is the authoritative one.

Work Out Your Own Number

Every figure in this article came from the published schedule and the arithmetic above, and you can reproduce all of it by hand. If you would rather not, our ACMA fee calculator implements the schedule directly, including the per access minimum, the licence level rounding, the power factors, pro rata terms and the accredited person charge, and it shows the rate and table each figure came from so you can check it against the source.

To see what is already licensed around a site before you choose a frequency, the ACMA Spectrum Map plots the register, and the Frequency Coordination Tool runs the interference analysis against nearby assignments.

If you want the licence itself organised, including the frequency assignment that unlocks the reduced charge, that is what our ACMA licensing service does.

Related reading: How to Get a Radio Licence in Australia, What Is an ACMA Accredited Person?, Understanding Apparatus vs Class Licensing and Understanding the 2025 LIPD Class Licence for the cases where you need no licence at all.

Notes on Sources

Every dollar figure in this article is computed from the ACMA apparatus licence fee schedule, edition 2026-07, and excludes GST.

• ACMA, Apparatus licence fee schedule (July 2026 edition). All tax rates, the $43.75 minimum tax, the power factors of 0.1 and 0.05, the administrative charges, the Division 9 accredited person charge of $28 per spectrum access, and the calculation order. The rate figures quoted are printed to the same four decimal places the schedule uses, so they can be found in the source tables.
• ACMA, “How to calculate your assigned licence fee”, for the point to point worked example reproduced above, which is the schedule’s own.
• Appendix F of that schedule for the definition of bandwidth as the spectrum denied to other services, and the rule for selecting a channel spacing where a band plan lists several.
• Appendix C for power discount eligibility by licence type, and Appendix E for concessions and exemptions.

Rates change. The schedule is revised periodically and the ACMA adjusts its taxes each year, so check the edition in force before relying on any figure here for a budget. The ACMA publishes the schedule as a guide rather than as legal advice, and its assessment of an individual licence is the authoritative one. Every figure above is a calculation from the published rates.