Qinetiq to police the airwaves

Ofcom has awarded a £500,000 contract to Qintetiq to develop a system for pinpointing illegal radio transmissions.

Qintetiq will be charged with combating wilful abuse of the spectrum from pirate radio stations, but will also be looking to identify accidental use by poorly configured wireless Lans and outdated CB and radio equipment.

"We will submit a technology demonstrator plus the recommendations from our comprehensive requirement study towards the end of 2005," said Rhod Scott Wilson of Qinetiq's spectrum solutions division.

"At that point Ofcom will approve the overall requirement and equipment specification. The approved design will then be commercialised and rolled out across the UK to provide the national network."

The initial design of the system is still being decided, but is likely to use a network of stations across the country that can monitor the spectrum continuously.

Qintetiq suggested using the existing mobile cellular network to allow monitoring stations to communicate across the country to triangulate the source of the transmissions.

In 2003/4 Ofcom prosecuted 55 people for radio interference, levying £22,200 in fines and 46 forfeiture orders.