New Australian requirements in effect for mobile telecom equipment

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is the country’s federal regulator for communications and broadcasting etc, while the Communications Alliance, (now the Australian Telecommunication Alliance, ATA) represent Australia’s telecommunications industry, and formally recognized under the Telecommunications Act 1997 for developing relevant industry codes and standards.

On 30 June last year, ATA published the revised telecom standard AS/CA S042.4:2025 with requirements for customer equipment connecting to mobile telecom networks based on IMT‑2000 and IMT‑Advanced technologies. As the given 12-month transition period expired on 30 June this year, the revised standard is now in effect.

The standard applies to addressable customer equipment intended for connection to public mobile telecom services and is mandated through the ACMA Telecommunications (Mobile Equipment Air Interface) Technical Standard 2022. A 12‑month transition period applies from publication of the new edition.

According to the standard, the revision updates technical requirements and referenced standards to align with current mobile equipment capabilities and service offerings.

Principal changes include:

• Updates to ETSI  references and supported spectrum bands.
• Removal of legacy UTRA requirements.
• Addition of E‑UTRA Band 26 (850 MHz) support.
• Addition of NB-IoT Non‑Terrestrial Network (NTN) Bands 255 and 256 (2 GHz).
• Introduction of an informative appendix addressing minimum band support for emergency
  calling across Australian mobile networks.

The revised standard introduces specific requirements for LTE, Carrier Aggregation, NB‑IoT, Cellular IoT, V2X technologies, and satellite-enabled NB‑IoT implementations. It references ETSI and FCC-based compliance pathways and identifies associated conformity assessment and test methodologies applicable to covered equipment.

All parties involved with supply of mobile and IoT equipment for the Australian market should review the revised standard and assess the impact of new band support requirements, non-terrestrial network provisions, and updated compliance references on product development and market-access activities.

For further information and/or assistance with market access of telecommunication equipment in Australia, please contact Jenny.Gibbs@nemko.com

(This article is based on information provided by Geremy Bradshaw; edited by T.Sollie)