What Is an ACMA Accredited Person? Frequency Assignment Certificates and What They Can Certify

If you are deploying a microwave link, a point-to-multipoint network, or any other service that needs an ACMA apparatus licence, you will run into a frequency assignment certificate sooner or later. It is the document that turns a proposed transmission into a coordinated one, and it can only be signed by a particular kind of person.

This article explains what an ACMA accredited person is, what a frequency assignment certificate actually certifies, and what an accredited person can and cannot do on your behalf.

The Short Answer

An accredited person is an individual whom the Australian Communications and Media Authority has accredited under Part 5.4 of the Radiocommunications Act 1992 to issue certain certificates that support radiocommunications licensing.

The two certificates that matter in practice are:

• a frequency assignment certificate (FAC), issued under subsection 100(4A) of the Act, which supports an application for an apparatus licence
• an interference impact certificate (IIC), issued under subsection 145(3) of the Act, which supports the registration of a device operating under a spectrum licence

There are exactly two kinds of accreditation, set out in section 7 of the Radiocommunications Accreditation (General) Rules 2021. A General Licensing Accreditation allows the holder to issue FACs for any licence type and IICs for spectrum licences. A Specific Licensing Accreditation allows the holder to issue FACs for one nominated transmitter or receiver licence type only.

The single most important point, and the one most often misunderstood, is this: an accredited person does not issue your licence. The ACMA issues the licence. Subsection 100(4A) says the ACMA may have regard to a frequency assignment certificate when it decides whether to issue an apparatus licence. It is a permission, not an instruction, and it does not oblige the regulator to approve anything.

What an accredited person actually does is the engineering work that makes the decision possible: finding a frequency that will work, assessing whether it will interfere with anyone already there, and certifying on the record that the proposed operation meets the conditions the law requires.

What Accreditation Actually Is

Section 263 of the Act is short and worth reading plainly. It says the ACMA may, by written notice, give a person an accreditation of a particular kind, and that an accreditation is to be given in accordance with the accreditation rules.

Three things follow from that wording.

Accreditation is personal. It is given to a person, not to a business. Companies cannot apply. An engineering firm can employ an accredited person, and a certificate can be issued under the organisation’s insurance policy, but the accreditation itself attaches to the individual whose name is on it.

Accreditation is of a kind. There is no single, undifferentiated status. The kind determines the scope, and the scope is legally enforceable rather than a matter of professional judgement.

Accreditation is rule bound. The qualifications, the conditions and the withdrawal procedures all live in a legislative instrument, the Radiocommunications Accreditation (General) Rules 2021, made under subsection 266(1) of the Act.

To be given a General Licensing Accreditation, section 8 of the Rules requires an applicant to hold a qualification approved by the ACMA, or an associate diploma, diploma or degree in electronic engineering from an Australian education organisation, or qualifications, experience or training the ACMA is satisfied are equivalent. The ACMA must also be satisfied that the applicant has experience in radiocommunications relevant to both frequency assignment and interference assessment.

Those two terms are defined in the Rules, and the definitions are a useful description of the job itself:

frequency assignment means the identification and recommendation of frequencies in the spectrum that are suitable for use by a radiocommunications device.

interference assessment means the evaluation of whether the operation of a radiocommunications device could cause an unacceptable level of interference to the operation of other radiocommunication devices.

General vs Specific Licensing Accreditation

The limit on the Specific Licensing Accreditation is not advisory. Schedule 2 of the Rules makes it a condition of the accreditation that the holder must not issue a frequency assignment certificate for a licence type other than the one specified in their instrument of accreditation. Issuing outside that scope is a contravention of a condition, which is one of the two grounds on which the ACMA can withdraw an accreditation altogether.

noIM3 holds a General Licensing Accreditation, which covers every apparatus licence type as well as interference impact certificates for spectrum licences.

What the Certificate Actually Certifies

This is where the substance sits, and it is more demanding than most people expect.

When an accredited person issues a frequency assignment certificate, they certify one thing: that the operation of a device will satisfy the conditions in the Radiocommunications (Conditions of Frequency Assignment Certificates – Apparatus Licences) Determination 2021.

The certificate has to pin that operation down to four specifics, which track subsection 100(4A) of the Act:

• the frequency or frequencies, or the frequency channel
• the constancy
• the location
• the technical conditions the operation is subject to

Those conditions include two that carry real weight.

Consistency. Under section 8 of the Determination, the operation must be consistent with the Act, the spectrum plan, any applicable frequency band plan, and any applicable condition determined under subsection 110A(1) or (2). It must also be consistent with either the ACMA procedural document named in the certificate, or, where no such document is named, the interference management criteria devised and used by the accredited person and recorded in accordance with the Accreditation Rules.

That second limb is the interesting one. ACMA procedural documents include the radiocommunications assignment and licensing instructions (RALIs), policy information papers, business operating procedures and frequency assignment practices. Where a RALI covers the case, an accredited person can assign against it. Where one does not, the law expressly permits the engineer to devise their own interference management criteria instead, provided they record the criteria, the method used to apply them, and the rationale for both. In other words, the framework accommodates engineering judgement, but only judgement that has been written down and can be produced later.

Belief on reasonable grounds. Under section 9 of the Determination, the operation must be such that the accredited person believes, on reasonable grounds, that the ACMA would issue an apparatus licence authorising it. Schedule 1 of the Rules reinforces this by requiring that the belief be honestly held and reasonably grounded, and by prohibiting any statement in a certificate that is false or misleading.

So the certificate is not a recommendation and it is not an opinion about what would be nice. It is a signed statement, made on reasonable grounds, that a specific transmission at a specific place will sit lawfully alongside everything already there.

A Worked Example: A 6 GHz Point-to-Point Link

Suppose an operator wants a licensed point-to-point link in the 6 GHz band between two towers. The work behind the certificate runs roughly like this.

1. Identify a candidate channel. RALI FX3 sets the RF channel arrangements for microwave fixed services in bands between 1 and 50 GHz, and it carries a dedicated appendix for the 6 GHz band, 5925 to 6425 MHz. The channel comes out of that arrangement, not out of whatever the radio happens to support.
2. Find out what is already there. The licensed services around both ends are pulled from the Register of Radiocommunications Licences, which the ACMA updates daily. Assigning against stale data is how you cause interference on paper before anyone transmits.
3. Assess the interference case in both directions. The question is not only whether the new link would degrade existing services, but whether existing services would degrade the new link. Antenna radiation patterns do most of the work here rather than boresight gain alone, which is why RALI FX3 specifies notional minimum antenna requirements for each microwave band.
4. Apply the criteria, and name them. Where RALI FX3 covers the case, the assignment is made against it and the certificate names it as the procedural document relied on. Where it does not, the accredited person devises their own interference management criteria and records the criteria, the method and the rationale.
5. Issue the certificate, or decline to. It can only be issued if the accredited person believes, on reasonable grounds, that the ACMA would issue an apparatus licence for that operation. If the interference case does not close, the honest output is a different channel, a different antenna, or no certificate.

The certificate is then lodged with the licence application. The ACMA verifies the details of the new site and may have regard to the certificate in deciding whether to issue the licence. The engineering judgement sits with the accredited person. The licensing decision stays with the ACMA.

What an Accredited Person Is Not

Because this is a compliance topic where being approximately right is not good enough, the boundaries are worth stating directly.

They do not issue licences. Only the ACMA does. Subsection 100(4) requires the ACMA, in deciding whether to issue an apparatus licence, to have regard to all matters it considers relevant, and in particular to the effect on radiocommunications of the proposed operation. A certificate informs that decision. It does not replace it.

A certificate does not bind the ACMA. Subsection 100(4A) is permissive. The ACMA may have regard to the certificate. There is no provision anywhere in the Act obliging the ACMA to issue an apparatus licence because an accredited person has certified it.

They are not ACMA staff. The ACMA states plainly that it does not employ accredited persons and is not responsible for their work. An accredited person is an independent practitioner operating inside a statutory framework, not an agent of the regulator.

Their certificates are audited. The ACMA runs a risk based audit program over frequency assignment certificates, with newer and less experienced accredited persons audited more frequently, alongside targeted audits. If the ACMA considers a certificate was issued outside the required conditions, it can decline to issue the licence on the basis of that certificate.

The Obligations Behind the Signature

Accreditation carries conditions that continue for as long as the certificates do.

Professional indemnity insurance. Schedule 1 of the Rules requires an accredited person to be covered by a policy from the day they first issue a certificate until the earlier of the day they cease to be accredited, or the day after the fifth anniversary of the last certificate they issued. The policy must come from an insurer authorised under Part III of the Insurance Act 1973 and must indemnify the person for loss or damage up to $2 million arising from their negligence. Every certificate issued outside government service must state the policy’s reference number and expiry date on its face. People issuing certificates in the course of government service are exempt.

Records. Where an accredited person has relied on their own interference management criteria rather than a published ACMA procedural document, they must make a record of the criteria, the method and the rationale no later than one day after issuing the certificate. Records must be kept for five years and produced to the ACMA or an inspector on request.

Solvency. Every accreditation is subject to the condition that the holder must not be an insolvent under administration.

Withdrawal. Under section 264A, the ACMA may withdraw an accreditation if it is satisfied that the accreditation is no longer in accordance with the accreditation rules, or that the person has contravened a condition. Section 265 requires the ACMA to give written notice first, invite representations, allow at least 14 days, and give due consideration to whatever is said in response. A decision to refuse, to impose a condition, or to withdraw is reviewable under Part 5.6 of the Act.

How to Check That Someone Is Accredited

The ACMA publishes a public register of accredited persons under Find an accredited person, listing each individual’s name, organisation, contact details and state. As at July 2026 it lists 64 accredited persons nationally, with the largest numbers in New South Wales and Queensland. Costa Manavis of noIM3 is on that list.

If someone offers to coordinate a frequency or lodge an apparatus licence application for you, that register is the check that takes thirty seconds and is worth making. The ACMA does not regulate what accredited persons charge, so fees are a commercial matter between you and the practitioner, but accreditation itself is either on the register or it is not.

Why It Matters for Your Network

An apparatus licence coordinated by an accredited person is a licence with a recorded technical basis. The frequency was assessed against the services already operating around it, the assessment was made against either a published ACMA procedure or criteria the engineer has recorded and must retain for five years, and someone with statutory accreditation and $2 million of professional indemnity has certified it on reasonable grounds.

That is what stands behind your assignment when a new service appears nearby, when interference has to be investigated, or when the ACMA audits the certificate two years later. It is also why the coordination step is worth doing properly rather than treating it as paperwork at the end of a project.

If you need assistance with that process, noIM3 provides ACMA apparatus licensing services through a General Licensing Accreditation, covering point-to-point links, point-to-area services, licensee and site registration. You can request a service on our ACMA licensing page, or handle the technical side yourself with our frequency coordination and link planning tools.

Sources

All statements of law above are taken from the primary instruments rather than secondary summaries:

• Radiocommunications Act 1992, Part 5.4 (sections 263 to 266A), subsections 100(4), 100(4A), 100(4B) and 145(1) to 145(4)
• Radiocommunications Accreditation (General) Rules 2021 (F2021L00748), in force
• Radiocommunications (Conditions of Frequency Assignment Certificates – Apparatus Licences) Determination 2021 (F2021L00755), in force
• ACMA, What an accredited person does, Apply to be an accredited person, Issue a frequency assignment certificate, Audit of frequency assignment certificates and Find an accredited person
• ACMA, RALI FX3: microwave fixed services, for the channel arrangements and antenna requirements referred to in the worked example

Fees and the number of accredited persons are current as at July 2026 and change from time to time. The legislative position is stated as at the compilation of the Act registered on 18 December 2024.