Ghana, Côte D'ivoire discuss issues of spectrum interference

The National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana and the Agence Ivoirienne de Gestion des Frequences radioelectriques (AIGF) in Cote d’Ivoire have held a three-day bilateral coordination meeting in Abidjan to discuss results of a fact finding monitoring exercise conducted by both countries at their respective borders. 

Both NCA and AIGF had received various complaints from consumers about network interferences when consumers accessed communications services.

The meeting was consequently organised to discuss observations made after the monitoring exercise and to agree on the parameters, the coordinates, the zones to be monitored, among others, as well as the enforcement of compliance by the two parties after bilateral agreements had been signed.

According to a release issued in Accra, a Deputy Director at the Regulatory Administration Division of the NCA, Isaac Kofi Boateng,  who led Ghana’s delegation thanked the AIGF for making the meeting possible.

He said as members of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire considered such bilateral discussions to be essential for the management of frequencies, spectrum and radio bands in ensuring that consumers accessed communication services without interferences in both countries.

Mr Boateng stated that the advancement in technology, expansion of settlements and economic activities along the two borders had necessitated an upgrade of the previous draft agreement and discussions which had been ongoing for the past 10 years between the two countries.

He stressed that the parameters outlined in the previous agreement were not fit for purpose in current times, and therefore, the essential objective of the meeting was to enable the two countries to have an extensive agreement going forward by reviewing the 2010 parameters vis-a-vis the recent measurements taken by the two countries in May/June, this year, in respect of the coordination zones and penetration levels at each side of the border.

Mr Boateng further stated that the meeting would serve as a kick-off to fashion out an agreement, which would be formally signed at a subsequent meeting.

He stated that the signed copies would be submitted to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in fulfilment of the border coordination regulations.

Firm support

For his part, the Director General of the AIGF, Dr Yacouba Coulibaly, thanked the Ghana’s delegation on behalf of the Ivorian Ministry of Digital Communications for the meeting.

Dr Coulibaly assured the meeting of his firm commitment to support the efforts of mobile operators to respect the technical parameters outlined in the coordination agreement in order to mitigate unintended interference at the borders.

He added that it was important to have such an agreement, especially when the two countries shared about 668km of territory along the border and further indicated that the coordination of frequencies was of paramount necessity to ensure quality of services to the populations living in the border areas and commuters who accessed the area for economic purposes.