By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ communications regulator yesterday said pricing structure changes for satellite services and FM spectrum bands will take place within the next few months.

Clinton Rahming, assistant regulatory officer at the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), told a webinar: “The licensing department has had two changes in the licensing regime. One as it relates to ESIMs, and the other is the revision of the national spectrum plan 2020-2023.”

ESIM stands for Earth Stations in Motion, and Mr Rahming explained: “It’s a satellite service. So it’s pretty much a satellite terminal being placed on vessels and airplanes that are in motion.

“Over the years, our international stakeholders, our satellite service providers, have been making some requests to URCA in regards to its pricing structure on ESIMs. So this year, the licensing department had a meeting and we had a lot of discussions, and we came up with a new tariff structure, a new pricing structure for ESIMs.”

Mr Rahming said the new structure will allow satellite providers to improve the critical services offered to their clients, while also bringing ESIMs into line with the policy objectives set out in the Communications Act to “promote competition and innovation in the electronic communications networks and services”.

Turning to spectrum management, Mr Rahming said: “The second major change we had in the licensing regime this year was the revision of the national spectrum plan that we got approved from the Government of The Bahamas. In the National Spectrum plan, we identified a number of bands as premium spectrum bands.

“What that does is it gives entrepreneurs, current service providers and future service providers an opportunity to be able to access that very critical and valuable piece of real estate that we call radio spectrum. Radio spectrum is essential to be able to deploy 5G services.

“One of the important areas in in any regulatory regime is spectrum management.

“And with spectrum management there’s a number of responsibilities, a number of tasks that fall on the spectrum manager such as spectrum monitoring,” he continued.

“Spectrum monitoring involves conducting compliance checks, conducting occupancy surveys to see who’s operating in the spectrum as they should be operating, and who is operating outside of the licensing parameters.

“We do this to reduce the probability of harmful interference, and that’s one of our key tasks in the spectrum management area.

“This is something that we would like to take into the New Year, especially as it relates to FM broadcasting service.

“We do intend to go out to the Family Islands and ensure there..... are no instances of unlicensed activities.”

Mr Rahming said these checks give URCA’s licensees the radio spectrum protection they need and deserve on the spectrum.

Charles Kemp, URCA’s electronic communications sector advisor, said hurricane damage had resulted in the regulator’s spectrum monitoring system falling into disuse.

“We are working towards having that restored within the next few months, at least a portion of that system,” he added.