The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has formulated this National Spectrum Plan in consultation with The Government of The Bahamas (“the Government”)  in fulfillment of the requirements set out in Part V of the Communications Act, 2009 (the “Comms Act” or “the Act”). This NSP furthers the objectives of the Electronic Communications Sector Policy (ECSP).  This NSP shall be cited as The National Spectrum Plan (2020-2023) (the “Spectrum Plan” or “NSP”).

The Comms Act prescribes the law applicable to the Electronic Communications Sector (ECS) and empowers URCA as the independent regulator of that sector.  The Act charges URCA with the responsibility for implementing the ECSP and grants URCA the exclusive right to manage, allocate and assign all frequencies (i.e., frequencies of electromagnetic energy) in the radio spectrum in The Bahamas excepting that the Minister shall decide the method of allocating frequencies in the premium spectrum bands identified in this NSP.

In April 2014, URCA published the second revision of the NSP (2014-2017) (ECS 03/2014). Section 31(4) of the Act stipulates that within three (3) years of each publication of a spectrum plan, URCA must formulate, in consultation with the Minister, a revised spectrum plan and submit the revised plan to the Minister for approval. Pursuant to Section 31(4) of the Act, URCA has revised the NSP (2014-2017), and the Minister has approved the new Spectrum Plan.