Summary

  • Ofcom’s 30 October consultation mainly writes earlier satellite and 1900 MHz fee decisions into the 2020 charging regulations.
  • The genuinely fresh proposal lowers the instalment threshold to invoices above £75,000 and makes twelve monthly payments the default.

“Consultation” sounds like a room where the price can still be set. Ofcom’s draft has a narrower job. The regulator says most of the proposed 2027 Wireless Telegraphy (Licence Charges) Regulations implement choices it has already made. The live argument is less about who gets which spectrum than about how a large annual bill arrives.

For non-geostationary satellite gateways, the current £500 annual cost-based fee is due to give way to administered incentive pricing, aligned with the revised formula for geostationary gateways. Ofcom’s March decision says the point is to reflect spectrum’s opportunity cost as demand grows. That is a pricing signal, not a new gateway allocation. The 30 October consultation places that decision in the regulations; Ofcom’s current NGSO licensing guidance says it expects the new fees in early 2027. The fee statement records the decision.

Rail and emergency-service charges are also largely settled. In the 1900–1920 MHz band, Ofcom chose 1900–1910 MHz for the Future Railway Mobile Communication System and 1910–1915 MHz for Emergency Services Network gateways. The band had remained unused since its 2000 award. The 2025 decision sets annual fees of £1.458 million for a Great Britain-wide 10 MHz rail licence and £364,500 for a 5 MHz ESN gateway licence. Smaller rail networks pay by route length: £14,580 per 100 miles for 10 MHz, rounded up. The new draft carries those schedules into regulation; it does not reopen the allocation choice. Ofcom’s 1900 MHz decision sets the amounts.

The new policy is about cash flow. Ofcom proposes lowering the threshold for staged payment from invoices above £100,000 to those above £75,000, making instalments automatic by default and extending the schedule from ten to twelve months. A licensee may still choose a lump sum. Eligibility is constrained: the licences must be of the same type, share a payment date and appear in one payment request. The draft also brings older decisions and administrative amendments into one rulebook. Comments close at 5pm on 4 December; Ofcom expects a statement in February 2027 and says the regulations would follow as soon as practical. The consultation and draft regulations spell out that division between old decisions and the new payment proposal.