A week-long African meeting on spectrum management organized by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) in collaboration with the Department of State for Communication and Information Technology and the International Telecommunication Union got underway at the Paradise Suites Hotel yesterday.

The meeting, which brought together participants from within the West African sub-region, aims at dealing with the specifics of spectrum management, its technical and economic importance.

In her opening remarks, the Secretary of State for Communication and Information Technology, Neneh Macdoull-Gaye, underscored Gambia government’s determination towards creating a liberalized market for the telecommunication sector.

She urged participants to, in their drive towards harmonization, look at plethora of ongoing works and issues such as basic agreements on telecommunication, reference paper on transparent regulatory procedures, International Telecommunication Union allocation issues, among others.

According to Mrs. Macduoll-Gaye, the meeting will provide an opportunity for member states of Ecowas to cooperate and collaborate in ensuring that qualitative spectrum standards are maintained and incidence of interference minimized.

Speaking earlier, Mrs. Margarida Evora-Sagna, West African Representative of the International Telecommunication Union, said the ability of nations to take full advantage of ‘this natural research depends heavily on spectrum managers facilitating the implementation of telecommunication services and ensuring their comfortable operation for Information and Communication Technology all over the world’.

“Information and Communication Technology frequency demands have so much increased during last year that nowadays, the cost of having frequency spectrum became one of the main sector analysis when starting anything or making use of hydro-frequency,” she added.

In his welcome address, Mr. Alhagi B. Gaye, Director General of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), described spectrum management as an important aspect of development on telecommunication.

According to Mr. Gaye, radio spectrum is a scarce national resource due to its growing range of valuable uses. “Due to spectrum use being an important and key element of the communications infrastructure, effective management of this resource promotes ongoing economic and social development,” he added.

He however stressed the need for harmonization and integration sub-regionally. Thus, he said, is important because even though voluntary coordination between member states exists, national rules provide a fragmented sub- regional approach.