The Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (Macra) will embark on a spectrum and frequency audit and mending the country’s Frequency Modulation (FM) band to manage interference and frequency congestion.

Macra director general Godfrey Itaye highlighted that the re-farming exercise will help the regulator to determine illegal use of spectrum, build database and enable growth of services in broadcasting.

The exercise is also expected to help the broadcasting industry in collecting data on current assignments in the FM band, collecting data on actual occupancy of the FM band and obtaining data on FM transmitters in Malawi and on planned channels in the border areas of the country for coordination purposes as per international Telecommunications Union (ITU) requirements.