Spectrum Inspections Go Remote: Thông tư 44/2026/TT-BKHCN Takes Effect Today

Every organisation in Việt Nam that runs a two-way radio, a private land-mobile network, a wireless broadcasting station or a satellite earth station has, until today, faced the same enforcement ritual: an inspection team arrives at the site, asks for the licence file, measures the transmitter, and writes a paper record. Thông tư 44/2026/TT-BKHCN takes effect on 15 September 2026 and makes that visit optional.

What the document is

The full title is Thông tư quy định kiểm tra tần số vô tuyến điện — the circular on radio-frequency inspection. It was signed in Hà Nội on 31 July 2026 by Bộ trưởng Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ Vũ Hải Quân, at the proposal of the Cục trưởng Cục Tần số vô tuyến điện, and Điều 26 brings it into force on 15 September 2026.

It rests on three legal foundations named in its preamble: the Luật Tần số vô tuyến điện of 23 November 2009 as amended by Luật số 09/2022/QH15; Nghị định 217/2025/NĐ-CP of 5 August 2025 on specialised inspection activity (hoạt động kiểm tra chuyên ngành), which is the general framework this circular localises to spectrum; and Nghị định 225/2026/NĐ-CP of 24 June 2026 on the structure of Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ.

The text runs to four chapters and 27 articles, with an appendix of 18 standard forms — inspection decisions, extension decisions, minutes, suspension orders, follow-up notices. Two carve-outs are set in Điều 1: it does not cover frequencies reserved for defence and security purposes or subjects with diplomatic immunity, and inspections of radio equipment installed on aircraft follow civil-aviation law instead.

What changes

Điều 26 states plainly that the circular replaces Thông tư 02/2016/TT-BTTTT of 1 February 2016, issued by the Minister of Information and Communications. That is the measure of the change: the rules governing spectrum enforcement were written by a ministry that no longer exists, for a pre-digital inspection process.

The 2016 circular recognised two forms of inspection — periodic and unscheduled — and assumed all of them happened in person. Thông tư 44/2026 keeps those two, adds a third (thematic inspections, inspections under a superior’s direction, and inspections requested by another competent authority), and then introduces something the old text had no concept of: a choice of method.

Điều 4 khoản 2 defines them. Kiểm tra trực tiếp is the familiar on-site visit, at the entity’s head office, workplace, or wherever the radio equipment is installed. Kiểm tra từ xa — remote inspection — is conducted “through the application of information technology to work with the inspected subject without depending on the place of work”. Under Điều 13, the whole cycle happens electronically: the team requests records, reviews them, seeks clarifications, drafts the minutes, and the inspected party has three working days to review, sign and return them, either by digital signature under e-transactions law or on paper via registered post.

Two further provisions do most of the practical work. Điều 4 khoản 3 directs inspectors to prefer remote inspection for businesses, household businesses and individual traders with good compliance records, where the documentary and electronic evidence is sufficient — except when resolving harmful interference, when there are signs of a violation, or when a competent authority asks otherwise. And Điều 4 khoản 4 sets out an exemption from physical inspection for anyone meeting all three criteria: inspected at least once in the preceding three years with no violation found, full compliance with the regulator’s requirements, and no current indication of a breach.

Điều 9 adds hard limits that the 2016 text did not have. A Cục Tần số vô tuyến điện inspection may not exceed 15 days, extendable once by up to 7; inspections by a Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ or a regional frequency centre may not exceed 10 days, extendable once by up to 5 working days. Periodic inspection of any one entity is capped at once per year.

Who it affects

Điều 2 casts the net wide: anyone using frequencies or radio equipment on Vietnamese territory, plus anyone using electrical, electronic or radio-wave-applying equipment capable of causing harmful interference — a category that reaches well beyond licensed operators into importers and installers of industrial and consumer equipment.

Điều 3 splits the enforcement authority three ways. The Cục trưởng Cục Tần số vô tuyến điện inspects nationwide; directors of the regional frequency centres and directors of the provincial Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ inspect within their own areas. The presence of provincial science-and-technology departments here matches the decentralisation the ministry announced earlier this year, under which provincial authorities took over licensing for six categories of network and station from 1 July 2026.

Practical implications

For a compliant operator, the realistic outcome is that spectrum enforcement becomes a document exercise. Three things are worth putting in place.

First, a named contact and an official email address. Under Điều 8, an entity receiving a remote inspection decision has five working days (three for an unscheduled inspection) to submit its report and provide the full name, position, phone number and official email of the person assigned to work with the team. Miss that window and Điều 13 khoản 5 lets the inspector convert the case to an on-site visit.

Second, a retrievable licence file. Điều 14 lists what must be produced: legal documents of the entity, frequency and equipment records, any contracts or notices covering leased or borrowed radio equipment together with the other party’s radio-operator certificates, kiểm định certificates for stations subject to mandatory inspection, conformity certification and declaration records for regulated equipment, and proof of licence fee payment.

Third, an eye on the exemption clock. Because the exemption in Điều 4 khoản 4 requires at least one clean inspection in the previous three years, a spotless record with no inspection at all does not qualify. Passing one inspection is now an asset with a three-year shelf life.

Notice periods are set in Điều 7: at least five working days before a periodic inspection and three before an unscheduled one, for both methods — except where the unscheduled inspection is to resolve harmful interference, in which case the decision is announced when the team arrives.

The circular also gives inspected parties defined rights. Điều 25 allows them to refuse information falling outside the scope, subject matter or period stated in the inspection decision, provided they give reasons, and protects state secrets, technology secrets, business secrets and personal data during the process. Điều 13 khoản 7 requires electronic records gathered in a remote inspection to be handled under archiving, e-transactions and personal-data-protection law — a routine-looking cross-reference that quietly imports Việt Nam’s data-protection regime into enforcement files.

Open questions

The circular does not say who decides that a business is a “good complier” for the purposes of the remote-inspection preference in Điều 4 khoản 3, nor whether the exemption in khoản 4 is granted on application, published, or simply applied internally when the annual plan is drawn up. In practice an operator may not learn it has been exempted at all — it will merely notice that no one came.

Nor does the text address how the exemption interacts with the interference caseload. Harmful interference is expressly excluded from the remote-inspection preference, so an exempt operator whose transmitter starts causing interference is back to an on-site visit with three working days’ notice, or none.

Finally, the transition in Điều 26 khoản 2 is narrow: inspections for which a decision was issued before today continue under that decision until they conclude. Periodic inspection plans for 2026 were approved under the old circular by 20 December 2025 — for entities on those plans whose inspection decision has not yet issued, the new methods apply from today.

Sources

This post is general information about a published legal document, not legal advice; consult a qualified Vietnamese lawyer about your own situation.