NCA does not jam radio stations – Joe Anokye
Mr Joe Anokye, the Acting Director General of the National Communication Authority (NCA), has revealed that the Authority does not have the technology to take any radio station off air, interfere or jam it.
He, however, noted that if a radio station failed to comply with its regulations then it would have to send its taskforce to the place and confiscate their equipment.
Mr Joe Anokye revealed this when he appeared before the Public Account Committee (PAC) to respond to some violations in the 2015 Auditor General’s Report in relation to the National Communications Authority.
The PAC is currently holding public sittings on the Report of the Auditor General for the Public Accounts of Ghana for the year ended 31st December, 2015.
The NCA, as a regulator, controls various service providers including Fixed Line Services, Cellular Mobile Service, Internet Service providers, FM Radio/Television Service, Broadband Wireless Service, Terrestrial Fibre Optics Infrastructure, and Virtual Mobile Networks.
Mr Anokye said since the beginning of this year the NCA had embarked on nationwide audit of all the spectrums it regulates including those for radio and TV stations.
He said because there were so many service providers and the system used to renew the licences was manual it was difficult to manage the challenge.
To address the challenge the NCA embarked on digitization of the business processes to allow for the automation of the renewal licences.
Mr Anokye said the NCA, at the moment, was using certain applications to ensure that the licences were automated to show those who had complied with rules in the system.
He noted that three months to the expiry of the licence the individual had a responsible to re-apply to the NCA for its renewal, adding that the Law was very explicit on that.
Though licences for the frequencies are transferable, however, this had to follow certain laid down rules of the Authority, he said.
Mr Anokye indicated that there are 506 authorized radio stations but the operational ones are 382, adding that the law does not set any limit for the number of radio stations.
He explained that the spectrum was finite but as long as a station was located where there was spectrum, it could be allocated a frequency.
The NCA regulates the service providers to ensure they comply with their licence conditions such that they could be able to cover a certain percent of the country.
Mr Anokye said the service providers should be able to provide certain quality services associated to their license or authorization given, whether voice only or voice and data service.
Source: GNA