Class (Public) Licensed

These spectrum bands have been reserved for public use and are known as the ISM bands since they were originally envisaged to be used for Industrial, Scientific and Medical purposes. This band is unmanaged and as such there are no charges associated with using this spectrum.

This spectrum allocation consists of the radio frequencies operating from 5470 – 5725 MHz (5.4 GHz band) and frequencies from 5725 – 5830 MHz (5.8 GHz band). The original allocation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for public use was in the 5.8 GHz band. As this band became congested the 5.4 GHz band was released and the majority of new class licensed services are now delivered using the 5.4 GHz band.

The use of this spectrum is generally uncontrolled meaning anybody can install a wireless service and there is no co-ordination between existing and new services being installed. The outcome is a negative impact on performance and reliability. Reduced throughput performance and link instability appear to be the biggest issues.

Experience has demonstrated that the use of class licensed spectrum works in the short term, however, as more class licensed links are deployed and spectrum becomes congested the reliability of these services begins to degrade.

This degradation is now occurring in Sydney and Melbourne and has been observed by existing users of class licensed bands. There are areas in Sydney where class licensed wireless links cannot be installed at all due to interference and overuse.

Class licensed spectrum has been successfully deployed in regional areas with good results due to the lack of density of these services and therefore substantially less interference to deal with than in metropolitan areas.