Bangladesh government has finalised the draft of a national frequency action plan to ensure the proper allocation and use of frequency, officials said. Telecom watchdog Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will set up a management and monitoring device to monitor frequency spectrum in various bands between 9KHz to 275GHz in an orderly and equitable manner. The BDT 400 million system would be set up at Agargaon in the capital under the ongoing strengthening project of the commission, funded by the World Bank. A BTRC top official said the system would be able to check whether authorised users are using more than their allocated band, and identify unauthorised users by direction and signal analysis. The system can also help the commission to measure spectrum occupancy and determine the percentage use of frequency bands or channels and deal with radio interference caused by transmissions from other users.
Due to the absence of such a device, the commission faces problems in frequency allocation in an equitable manner as the number of frequency users are growing fast with the growth of the telecommunications sector, said the official. ‘We can take back unused frequency from telecom operators and retain them for future use with the help of such a device.’ On the other hand, the device can also ensure due revenues of the commission as the users will not be able to use more than the allocated frequency. As the frequency spectrum is a valuable, yet a finite national resource, it is highly desirable that the spectrum resources should be utilised in an efficient and effective manner to allow development of new services to meet and balance the needs of the government and commercial sectors, said the officials
