Summary

  • Ofcom’s 30 October 2026 draft would remove the £500 fixed annual sum for an NGSO satellite gateway licence and insert a site-based variable charge.
  • The draft formula counts the ten highest-value authorised transmission paths for each band and site, applies a 1.2 NGSO factor and retains a £500 minimum.

The old invoice could fit on one line: £500 a year for an NGSO gateway licence. Ofcom’s 30 October statutory notice carries the fee policy it decided in March toward legal effect. The draft regulation converts the charge into a calculation tied to the radio authorisation. A gateway operator will have to understand the licensed power, bandwidth, bands and paths behind the invoice.

The draft instrument removes “£500” from the fixed-sum column and inserts a variable sum for each site, defined as a circle of 500 metres around a point chosen by the licensee. In each band, the formula takes the ten transmission paths with the highest power-times-bandwidth values, applies the band factor and multiplies NGSO by 1.2. GSO uses a factor of 1. The computed sum still has a £500 floor. These are proposed legal instructions for Ofcom’s bill, rather than a single price for every dish.

Ofcom’s impact assessment puts scale on the change. Its hypothetical NGSO gateway across three bands would pay £20,900 under the new method; a comparable GSO example would pay £17,400. Ofcom says actual fees could run from a few thousand pounds to tens of thousands, with a cap on the counted antennas at one site and band. The £20,900 figure is an illustration, not a bill already sent to an operator.

The March policy statement made the economic decision: bring NGSO gateways into administered incentive pricing, already used for GSO gateways, so scarce spectrum carries an opportunity-cost signal. The October document supplies proposed statutory words. Representations close on 4 December, and Ofcom expects a final statement in February 2027. The draft leaves its commencement date blank. The present £500 charge remains the operative number until the regulation takes effect.