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Radio spectrum fees review 2025

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) manages the radio spectrum regulatory system to ensure New Zealand people and businesses can continue to rely on quality wireless connectivity. MBIE maintains the Register of Radio Frequencies, prepares New Zealand for new spectrum uses, issues new radio and spectrum licences, investigates interference, and ensures radio apparatus permitted in New Zealand can be used without causing interference. 

MBIE charges annual radio spectrum licence fees for all radio and spectrum licences to recover the costs of Radio Spectrum Management services. Your feedback will inform MBIE’s advice to Ministers on the final fees structure which is planned to come into force July 2026.

We are proposing two options for fee changes. We want your feedback on: 

• which option you prefer
• any different options that would be preferrable to the proposed options
• what impact these fee options would have on your business or entity 

Why we are proposing this now 

For the last 8 years, annual licence fees have been set lower than the actual cost to manage the radio spectrum regulatory system, due to a historic surplus. Now the surplus is almost gone, it is time to adjust the fees to ensure the system fully recovers costs. 

The proposed changes to fees mostly represent the increase from a fee level that under-recovers costs to a fee level that fully recovers costs. 

The cost incurred by MBIE to administer each licence has increased less than inflation

MBIE aims to deliver its Radio Spectrum Management services efficiently. The number of licences has significantly increased from 2017, which reduces the per licence cost.  On the other hand, some of MBIE’s operational costs have increased, particularly to maintain the new Register of Radio Frequencies but also due to general inflationary pressure. In 2016/2017 Financial Year, the average cost incurred by MBIE per standard licence was $177.60; in 2023/2024 it was $188.41. This means on average the amount it costs MBIE to administer a standard licence has only increased by around 6 percent since 2016/2017. This increase is significantly less than inflation from 2017 to 2024 which was around 27 percent. 

However, the proposed increase in the licence fee is greater than inflation because since 2017 MBIE has been charging substantially less that what it costs to administer a licence. 

Who will be impacted?

Annual licence fees only apply to owners of radio and spectrum licences. The amount an owner pays each year will be determined by the number of their licences. General User Licences, which apply to consumer technology like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, will not be impacted by any proposed fee changes. 

All fees proposed in this document are GST exclusive, unless stated otherwise.

How to make a submission

Please send your written submission by 5pm on 11 April 2025. Please include your name or the name of your organisation and contact details. You can make your submission by email or post as follows:

By email (preferred option)

Attach your submission as a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment and send it to Radio.Spectrum@mbie.govt.nz, subject line: ‘Review of radio spectrum licence fees’.

By post

Send your submission to:
Radio Spectrum Management Policy and Planning
Building, Resources and Markets
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
PO Box 1473
Wellington 6104

Please direct any questions you may have on the submissions process to: Radio.Spectrum@mbie.govt.nz.