Do I need a private frequency for my business?

This comes down to the nature of your business and it’s needs. If your team need to communicate private information or need to co-ordinate without interruption. A private frequency is the best way to ensure this. It can also increase the safety of your team; we’ve all heard stories of pranksters giving incorrect information to tower crane operators or sabotaging comms and stopping work. While plenty of businesses to this day utilise the CB frequencies while free, does come with its disadvantages such as interference and congestion. 

What licence should I apply for?

Your radio provider should ask a host of qualifying questions before putting through an application:

• -How many radio user’s will there be? (Capacity)
• -How many channels do you require? (Capacity)
• -Will it be used in one fixed location, or will it be used in multiple locations? (Type of Licence)
• -What is the size of the site and what coverage are you hoping for? (Power)

Capacity

Establishing the capacity of a radio network, is integral to ensuring it doesn’t collapse. If there are too many users on one channel it can congest the channel and will inhibit effective communication. Future proofing your system for new buildings or if extra staff are to be employed are both considered before suggesting how many channels you require. 

Types of Licences

Fixed Location Licences

 Can only be used in one location. If you require extra coverage for your site, you can apply for a high Power location licence as long as it’s available. Keep in mind you’ll likely need additional equipment (Radio Repeater) to do the leg work for your site.

Area Wide Licences

If you’re business requires your staff to operate in different locations. Area Wide licences are great for teams to deploy in multiple locations when required. You can ask for a State Wide or Australia Wide Licences prices vary.  Area Wide licences are limited to 5 Watts. Area Wide Licences are to only be used in the same location for 4 weeks at a time otherwise a fixed site licence is required. Area wide licences does not guarantee to be free of interference if this does occur an agreement is to be made with the other user. The ACMA tries it’s best to allocate licences to prevent this happening and is substantially less congested than Citizen Band 

Private Frequencies Costings:

ACMA charge a one-time initial application fee per frequency, then charge an annual renewal fee for the continual use of the frequency.

 ACMA private Frequencies are determined by the Density of the area.

 You can have as many radios as you like programmed to your frequency we’ve seen in the past other businesses charge per radio which is not correct.