In a bid to better manage radio spectrum in Kenya, the Communications Authority of Kenya has unveiled a Spectrum Management and Monitoring System (SMMS) which will prevent, detect and ultimately eliminate interference in communications services. The system will conduct frequency monitoring to achieve this and ensure compliance with the law for radio, TV and wireless communications. When applying for Spectrum, one has to make a case for what they will use the spectrum and the system will enforce.
The SMMS has the capacity to monitor the electromagnetic spectrum and locating sources of suspect signals to facilitate undisturbed reception. Assuming a user has been allocated the frequency 109.9 but their frequency interferes with that of the user allocated 109.8. The system will monitor this and report these cases for action to be taken. The system will monitor both on mobile and fixed. Fixed monitoring will take place from the office while on mobile this will allow for the narrowing down of such cases. This will also complement activities that satellite offers in monitoring which makes SMSS an upgrade.
The system has been supplied and installed by a German company, Rohde & Schwarz. With the new system, frequency spectrum monitoring will now be undertaken from eleven fixed stations complemented by four vehicles equipped to facilitate mobile surveillance.
