Reliable information reaching your authoritative Simcardblog indicates Netherlands-based telecoms company, Afrimax Group is in country to explore the possibility of offering 4G LTE services in Ghana.
The Ghana subsidiary, Afrimax Ghana BV, has the same street address as the mother company in the Netherlands; Naritaweg 165, 1043 BW Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Some 4G LTE operators in Ghana are already raising questions about “this early competition from a foreign player.” Even some 4G operators elsewhere on the continent are asking about Afrimax’s presence in Ghana. This writer has had at least one enquiry from Tanzania where Afrimax has a partnership with the Vodacom Group.
Vodafone
On November 18 last year, the Vodafone Group and the Afrimax Group jointly announced a partnership to expand in sub-Saharan Africa through 4G LTE services, comprising voice and data services in selected countries.
“The deal gives Vodafone access to as many as 12 new African territories,” Vodafone said in a statement on its website.
“The partnership with Vodafone solidifies our ongoing plans to be a leading provider of high-speed network services in sub-Saharan Africa,” Afrimax Chief Executive Officer Peter Langkilde also said in that statement.
In Uganda, for instance, the two agreed to use the Vodafone Uganda brand for the 4G LTE service for both voice and data.
The statement also did say that the framework agreement will complement Vodacom Group’s operations in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique.
But both Vodafone and Afrimax did not say if the partnership was supposed to benefit Ghana also. It is therefore not clear if Afrimax’s presence in Ghana has anything to do with the partnership agreement with Vodafone.
Simcardblog therefore sent separate requests to the Vodafone Group and the Afrimax Group to find out if Afrimax’s presence in Ghana has anything to so with their partnership agreement.
In a response, Senior Media Relations Manager of the Vodafone Group, Adam Liversage said “Under our framework agreement, Vodafone and Afrimax are exploring Partner Market opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. Vodafone is already present in Ghana, however, with Vodafone Ghana.”
He then referred this writer to two officials at Vodafone Ghana on issues specifically regarding Ghana.
This writer has since sent a request weeks ago to Vodafone Ghana on the matter but no response. The Afrimax group has also not provided any response.
Industry Watchers
Meanwhile, some industry watchers believe Afrimax is positioning itself to partner a local player and go for some of the 4G-compliant spectrum that would emerge as part of the digital dividend from the digital terrestrial migration (DTT).
That harvested spectrum from DTT is going for a minimum of US$92million per spectrum band and only MTN has showed interest so far. The conditions on that license is that any foreign entities who puts in a bid should have at least 40% local shareholder.
NCA
Simcardblog is reliably informed that the industry regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA) is aware of Afrimax’s presence in the country but NCA has not awarded them any license yet. Besides, Vodafone Ghana has no BWA license yet.
NCA has so far awarded three BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) licenses to local 4GLTE operators. So far two have taken off: Surfline Communications and Blu Telecoms. The third license holder, Goldkey Telecoms has not even announced take off plans even though deadline for take off is this month. But Simcardblog is reliably informed that Goldkey is in no talks with Afrimax for partnership.
The law allows the first three local BWA license holders to sell up to 70% shares to foreign investors, unlike the other telecoms licenses, some of which have been wholly sold to foreign investors.
Afrimax is a known 4G carrier in sub-Saharan Africa and has received $65 million of equity funding from investors including KGC Capital chairman Richard Kiphart and the IFC of the World Bank.
The recent extension of the Subah Infosolutions contract to continue real time verification of telcos revenue flow on behalf of government does not mean the Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) cannot take off when cleared by the courts.
The ICH is being set up to mainly manage the interconnect traffic between telcos, between telcos and other industry players, as well as all traffic from overseas into the country.
It would have an additional job of monitoring telcos domestic revenue flow in real time, to secure accurate communications service tax (CST) on behalf of Ghana Revenue Authority. This is a service Subah is currently doing for a fee but the ICH will do it for GRA pro bono when it comes on stream.
Subah was paid over GHC74million of taxpayers’ between 2010 and 2012 and is also billed to earn over 11% of incremental revenue it discovers under the CST verification on behalf of GRA. Meanwhile, ICH is being set up to do that job for free and save the country money.
So far, Subah is said to have discovered no incremental revenue from monitoring the telcos billing systems for months now, and it has not been paid any additional money after the GHC74million plus it was paid prior to installing verification equipment on telcos’ networks.
ICH was supposed to have taken over from Subah this month. But Subah’s contract, which ended on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, has been renewed while the fate of the ICH was yet to be determined by the Human Rights Court.
Court
The court is hearing a case in which Obuasi West MP Kwaku Kwarteng, and Development Researcher Elijah Adansi Bonnah are challenging the constitutionality, legality and necessity of the ICH. The two also claim the ICH will interfere with their privacy, so they are also seeking an injunction on the planned take off of the ICH this month.
Ruling on the injunction is set for May 13, 2015, which means for one week, after the end of Subah’s contract, no private company was going to be monitoring the telcos on behalf of government.
Minister
But the Minister of Communications wrote to the Minister of Finance on April 27, 2015 to prevent GRA from renewing Subah’s contract in spite of the lacuna, explaining that call detail records (CDRs) of telcos could still be generated without Subah. Moreover a decision on ICH was coming up in one week.
In spite of the Communications Minister’s admonishment, the GRA has renewed Subah’s contract for one more year, which means even if the ICH starts work any time soon, Subah is likely to continue the verification of domestic traffic until May 5, 2016.
But ICH can still work on its core mandate of managing interconnect traffic on behalf of telcos, and verifying incoming overseas traffic among other things on behalf of the National Communications Authority (NCA).
Information reaching your authoritative Simcardblog indicates the Communications Minister, the a Attorney-General and the Director-General of industry regulator NCA are distraught about the unceremonious and clandestine manner in which the GRA renewed the Subah contract, in spite of the April 27, 2015 caution.
Subah
Meanwhile, the folks at Subah are glad about the extension because they believe it is an opportunity to continue their “good work”, even though they are said to have not found anything untoward since they started monitoring the telcos, and have therefore not been paid any extra income after the GHC74million plus, which generated huge controversy in the country.
It is also important to note that Subah was one of the companies which put in a bid for the ICH job and they were beaten to it by Afriwave Telecoms Ghana. So they see Afriwave as competition and are likely to go to court to defend their space if the ICH takes off alongside their work.
Telcos
All of this is about the telecom operators. They are the ones under the magnifying lens, whether it is Subah or ICH working. They had always raised questions about the necessity of real time verification when CST is being paid at the point of sale of recharge cards and not at the point of use of airtime.
The telcos have suggested the government should rather go audit the local manufacturers of the recharge cards for the CST because they will not get much from how the airtime is being used, since each telco has various tariff plans that vary the value of a particular amount of airtime purchased.
But since Subah has also installed their verification systems on the telcos’ networks the telcos are now getting comfortable with hosting Subah and would therefore prefer to maintain the status quo and ward off the ICH.
Indeed, the telcos have been out there criticizing the ICH policy and raising questions about its legitimacy, constitutionality and necessity, and they have challenged claims about some of the good things the ICH is said to be coming to do.
And some of the big questions the telcos are asking is why the NCA would insist on a third party private monopoly as ICH – why telcos must be compelled to connect to that single private sector ICH – whether NCA also go to radio stations and say all of them should close down their respective newsrooms and use a single privately-owned newsroom?
As it is now, it would not be surprising if the telcos decide they would rather live with the devil they earlier rejected but now know, Subah, than having to welcome the angel they do not know, ICH.
The telcos said they are not against the ICH policy but they prefer a model that involves the regulator, telcos and other industry players working together to create a platform instead of introducing a third party monopoly.
NCA
But it is not up to the telcos entirely. Industry regulator, NCA has insists it has weighed the options and is convinced the private sector monopoly model is the best for this country. It has said that model is good for Ghana because it will stop capital flight in the industry, cut down telcos’ cost on interconnect equipment, heavily boost local content in the industry, help telcos to give customers lower tariffs, and help to fight SIMBOX fraud among other things.
The NCA has also said it will fully pay for the setting up of the ICH and no telco will be required to adjust their systems to meet the ICH but the ICH will rather meet each telco at the point of their need. This means no direct cost to telcos.
Critics of the ICH, including the telcos, have also raised concerns about the ICH interfering with telcos customers’ privacy, but the NCA has said same rules governing telcos would also govern ICH in terms of protecting the privacy of customers, so there is no cause for alarm.
The other big issue telcos raised is the ICH being a single point of failure as a monopoly routing all communications traffic in the country. As a monopoly, if it fails at some point, it will affect the entire country, as opposed to the current situation where an outage on a telco affects only that telco’s customers.
The single point of failure argument has been firmly upheld by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), which is a clearinghouse for the banking industry. GhIPSS IT Head, Kwadwo Ntim admits that GhIPSS is a single point of failure and ICH will also be. He said failures will occur sometimes, but with vigilant 24/7 monitoring, ICH could reduce the impact of any outages on its network.
Vodafone Ghana has been claiming that telcos would spend money on systems upgrade or downgrade in order to be able to connect to the interconnect clearinghouse (ICH) but an official of the National Communications Authority said that is untrue.
Vodafone’s claim was in response to assertions by Telecoms Consultant Osman Issah that telcos would save rather than lose money when they connect to the ICH.
In a message to your authoritative Simcardblog, a Vodafone official, who said his comments were the official position of the company, rebutted Issah’s claims, saying “if a telco’s systems are more advanced than the ICH that telco would have to downgrade and if the ICH is more advanced then the telco would have to upgrade. All that come with cost.”
Prior to that, Vodafone had said in its responses to NCA on the ICH license that the ICH will render telcos’ investments into the existing interconnect systems waste, lead to job cuts and increased tariffs to customers.
But the NCA official said that is not true, explaining that “the ICH shall be responsible to interconnect on all protocols that every service provider chooses. So if a service provider is higher it is on the ICH to upgrade – if the service provider is lower, it is for the ICH to downgrade.”
He said the ICH will ensure interoperability of all systems, technologies, services and protocols, adding “that’s the essence of it being the enabler to convergence at least cost on interoperability.”
The NCA official noted that contrary to the erroneous impression that telcos would be compelled to bow to the dictates of the ICH, the ICH would rather take orders from service providers to deliver on their requirements.,
“The ICH doesn’t serve buffet,” he said, adding “they don’t tell their clients to upgrade or downgrade – they rather adjust to suit their clients.”
The NCA had earlier said that government is paying for the setting up and operations of the the ICH with part of the moneys it makes from inbound international traffic, so telcos and their customers do not have to worry about cost.
Meanwhile, Telecom Consultant Osman Issah insists that telcos will save money on infrastructure maintenance once they connect to the ICH and thereby be able to give customers affordable rates.
He said the ICH will also stop capital flight with respect to clearinghouse operations because telcos will now be able to clear traffic locally for less instead of the using expensive clearinghouses abroad.
“Again, newly licensed international wholesale carriers (IWCs) and VAS players will also connect to the ICH and have access to all telcos instead of each of them having to go to each telco for connectivity,” Issah argued.
Meanwhile an MP and another Ghanaian citizen are currently in court challenging the legality of the ICH.
Two months after launch, Surfline is up for honors at this year’s edition of the Africa Communications Awards, scheduled to take place on the 12th of November, 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Surfline has been shortlisted for the award in the ‘Breakthrough LTE Development’ category for successfully deploying the first 4G LTE network in Ghana and the single largest 4G LTE deployment in Africa.
Described as the digital industry’s most anticipated awards event in Africa, the seventh Africa Communications Awards will focus on innovation and celebrate businesses that are leading the way in breaking new fronts in technology, within their markets and the continent at large.
Surfline is the first LTE operator in Ghana. It started after others like Yomy and Smile had launched on the continent. But Surfline took off with 220 cell sites across Accra and Tema, which is by far the largest LTE infrastructure deployment on the continent till date.
The company has also obtained bandwidth from two submarine fibre vendors, Main One and Glo 1, and is working on obtaining more bandwidth from a third vendor in order to ensure enough redundancy. It employed the services of leading global players such as Tech Mahindra, IBM, Oracle and Alcatel Lucent as its technology partners to ensure Ghanaians got world class quality in data services.
Speaking on the awards, Chief Executive Officer of Surfline, Dr. Yaw Akoto said “we are excited that our drive and efforts to redefine the data experience in Ghana is already being acknowledged in just a little over two months after launch. This recognition will bolster our efforts to shape technology and ICT in Ghana and the rest of the continent eventually”.
The other categories for recognition at this year’s awards are the Best App for Africa, Best connectivity Solutions for Africa, Best cost efficiency solution for Africa, Best device for Africa, Best Marketing Campaign, Best Mobile Money Service, Best Network Improvement, Best Pan African initiative, Changing lives award, excellence in customer experience management, most innovative service and VSAT innovations for Africa.
Surfline is the first mobile telecoms operator to pioneer an LTE network in Ghana. The company is also the only telecoms operator 100% owned by Ghanaians. Surfline was established in Ghana in 2011 and provides Ghana’s fastest mobile internet service to consumers and businesses in the Greater Accra
A new report from Juniper Research indicates that voice and messaging traffic continues to lose market share to OTT (Over The Top) players such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype and that is expected to cost telecom operators $14 billion in revenues globally by the close of this year, up by 26% on losses made in 2013.
It argued that a combination of IM (interactive media), VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and social media substitution was primarily responsible, resulting not only in lost revenues but in additional costs due to the scale of signaling traffic.
M2M, Big Data offer New Revenue Streams
However, the report also identifies an array of new revenue streams with the potential to deliver cumulative revenues to operators in excess of $66 billion over the next five years. The resulting revenues could more than offset the decline from core service revenues on an annual basis by 2018.
According to report author Dr. Windsor Holden, “In areas such as M2M (Machine to Machine) and mobile money, operators can achieve a substantial revenue uplift by focusing on full service provision rather than simple connectivity”.
Direct Carrier Billing
Additionally, the report recommended that operators implement direct carrier billing to retain a foothold in the lucrative mobile content space, and that they enhance their analytics packages to monetize consumer ‘big data’.
Other findings from the report include:
Without optimization, mobile data delivery costs will increase by more than three times over the next three years.
Implementation of NFV (Network Functionality Virtualization) solutions offer operators the potential both of cost savings on proprietary hardware and on reducing product time-to-market.
Operators can boost core revenues by introducing higher-value shared data plans or by bundling content into a monthly subscription.
Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.
Ghana
In Ghana, telcos continue to offer affordable data package to encourage data consumption, mainly through the usage of OTT Apps such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Viber. Tango, and others.
Telecoms market leader, MTN Ghana for instance is offering a Social Bundle at GHC5 (about US$1.4) for 30 days for use on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp.
Some customers of MTN have also reported they get free data credit when they download OTT Apps like Viber and Tango.
All the other telcos are also offering affordable time-bound data bundles to suit the lifestyles of their customers in terms of data consumption. They each have separate packages for browsers, live streamers, downloaders.
At least three, MTN, Vodafone and Airtel are offering devices that enable groups to access the internet simultaneously.
Meanwhile, the new 4G LTE entrant, Surfline is also offering similar devices to encourage group data consumption from one account, a move, Juniper said promises to be a revenue booster for telcos in the coming years.
The first part of this article looked at the entrenched positions on SIM boxing, the law, the estimated financial damage to the country and the telcos and the reason for implementing the 19 cent minimum ITR with a 6 cents surtax, and the argument against the 19 cents. Part two looks at some accusations NCA levels against telcos and the responses of the telcos, plus some comparative examples in other jurisdiction and some information from GSMA on the damage surtax is doing to the industry and to the economy in general.
Accusations and responses
The NCA insists the telcos are not fighting SIM boxing hard enough. Firstly, they accuse telcos of bad customer acquisition practices, characterized by the often activation of unregistered and badly registered SIM cards. But the response from the telcos is that Ghana as a country has no proper ID verification system. So when people produce valid ID cards to register SIMs, it is almost impossible to verify the authenticity of the ID card and whether it actually belongs to the user. People cannot be traced to their homes, offices and other locations through their ID cards. Moreover, there is no law that determines how many SIM cards could be registered in the name of one person. So people register SIMs and give them to others to use for fraud and it becomes difficult to trace the real user of the SIM card.
There is no evidence yet, to show that telcos’ staff/agents DELIBERATELY register SIMs for fraudsters. But the NCA has not ceased making that claim. Whereas the telcos do not deny that some of their agents do bad SIM registration, they insist that wrong SIM registration and multiple SIM registration are not crimes. Each of the telcos say they usually block numbers found to have been badly registered or unregistered. And agents/staff found culpable are usually punished privately. But, sometimes when SIMs are detected as being used for SIM boxing, the respective telcos delay in deactivating them, and that fuels the NCA’s claim that the telcos are themselves condoning SIM boxing. The guidelines give telcos up to two hours to deactivate detected SIMs, but recently, it took Glo, for instance, more than one month to deactivate over 30,000 of such fraudulent SIMs on its network.
Telcos not committed?
The NCA also says most of the telcos are not investing into the right systems to fight SIM boxing. But the evidence does not seem to support that accusation either. Tigo has one of the most well defined systems of fighting SIM boxing. And recently, Vodafone also told this writer they have invested €400,000 (US$504,000) in a fraud management system, and another €77,000 (US$97,020) this year in call generation software all in an effort to detect and fight SIM boxing on its network. MTN, Airtel, and Glo also claim they have comprehensive in-house systems in place to fight SIM boxing. As to how effective those systems have been, is subject to debate because it would appear that apart from Tigo, the rest of the telcos are still recording very worrying levels of SIM boxing on their respective networks. A Vodafone official told journalists “when you detect and deactivate 1,000 SIMs the fraudsters will bring 1,000 SIMs to replace them because they have the incentive (19 cents) to do so”. But there is no lack of effort by telcos in fighting SIM boxing as the NCA often claim.
But it is important not to forget that whereas the NCA only points to a suspicion that telecom operators or their staff may be involved in SIM boxing, the evidence supports the telcos’ argument that the huge difference between the 19 cents ITR and the 4 cents maximum local call rate is a major fuel for the SIM boxing train. The NCA often argue that ITR is higher than 19 cents in other countries. And that is true. ITR is even over 35 cents in Burundi for instance. But the problem is never about high ITR. It is about the difference between the ITR and the local call rate. In those countries, the local call rates are also high enough, so the difference does not motivate SIM box fraudsters.
As the table above shows, in Nigeria, for instance, ITR is 3 cents and local call rate is 7 cents, which is higher than ITR so no motivation for SIM box operators. In South Africa the arbitrage is zero because both ITR and local call rate are 4 cents. But in Zimbabwe ITR is 20 cents and local call rate is 7 cents; there is 13 cents arbitrage so there is SIM boxing. Similarly, in Ghana, SIM box fraud is big because there is about 16 cents arbitrage, which motivates fraudsters.
Telcos hiding revenue?
The NCA also accuse telcos of under-declaring revenue from the incoming international gateway. The NCA says it has third party reports which show that the telcos are making more money from incoming international calls than they declare in their call detail records (CDRs). The NCA attempted to do real time monitoring of the international gateways but that did not happen due to a court action by some citizens (not the telcos).
NCA’s claim of under declaration of revenue by telcos has not been proven with evidence but the NCA keeps flying that argument and making it look like the telcos are only in to milk the state. Efforts to get the NCA to show evidence of those claims have proven futile because they would not share any documental evidence of those claims. That is very typical of the NCA.
But the telcos have always argued that there is no motivation for them to under declare revenue because each of their top executives in Ghana and elsewhere get paid commissions in the form of a percentage of the revenue they generate and declare for their mother companies. Under declaring revenue therefore means the executives are shortchanging themselves. So there is no point in under declaring revenue for any telecom CEO in Ghana. But the NCA insists, without any published evidence, that the telcos under declare revenue.
On the local front, the Ghana Revenue Authority also has same suspicion and has therefore employed Subah Infosolutions Limited to do real time monitoring of telcos. Subah has started work now, but information reaching this writer indicates that they have not found any extraordinary incremental tax revenue apart from the normal periodic increases resulting from the natural growth of the telecom industry.
GSMA Report
In conclusion, it is appropriate to share some highlights from a recent GSMA Report on Surtaxes/fixed ITRs and its direct and indirect impact on the Ghanaian economy, telecom operators, private businesses, phones users and Ghanaians living abroad. It research was conducted by globally recognized research, management and audit company, Deloitte between June 2010 and September 2013. GSMA (GSM Association) represents 100s of telecom operators and device manufacturers across the globe. So it speaks for the telcos.
Highlights
As a result of fixed ITR, calls from UK to Ghana is now 200% higher than calls from UK to Nigeria. So Ghanaians in the UK are paying more for calls to their country. As a result, it is estimated Ghana lost US$4.1million in remittances from abroad. Indeed, a World Bank publication in 2009 showed that remittances to Africa started growing at a lesser rate from that year. A four percent drop was reported in the growth rate between 2008 and 2009 for instance.
Again, more Ghanaians abroad are said to be using VoIP (voice over internet protocol) platforms like Viber, Tango, Facebook, imo, Skype and others to make calls to Ghana. These platforms only bring very minimal data charges, which is way more affordable than what telcos abroad charge.
It is estimated that within the first five months Ghana introduced the 19 cents fixed minimum ITR, calls to Ghana through legit routes fell by 27%. This is consistent with Meucci Solutions Report, which shows the drop has been increasing since.
Over the 40-month period under review therefore, it is estimated that Ghana lost a whopping 679million minutes of incoming international traffic. That is consistent with other reports quoted above. It is also consistent with a recent analysis by OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development), which found that legit traffic to countries implementing fixed ITRs have reduced significantly.
It also resulted in losses in corporate taxes from telcos, estimated at US$2.9million over the period.
The fixed ITR is also estimated to have short up operational cost to Ghanaian businesses who do business with other countries where ITR exist. The cost is estimated at US$21.4million for Ghanaian businesses over the period under review. That was the highest loss among the 15 countries studied. The second to Ghana was Benin, where a loss of US$10million was recorded.
As a result of the losses to those local businesses, corporate taxes from them also reduced by an estimated US$300,000.
Moreover, the 19 cents, according to GSMA, has encouraged a boost in SIM box activity, which is also affecting call quality for Ghanaians who live in areas where SIM box fraudsters have hidden their SIM boxes and are terminating thousands of calls daily. They create congestion on the networks of the telcos and genuine customers suffer.
Going forward
There are a number of hints that promise to kill SIM Boxing. The NCA has said it will go away. It would appear they are considering a removal of the 19 cents, but will insist on telcos still bringing the surtax of 6 cents from every minute of incoming international call to the state. The Minister of Communication has also hinted of a possible legislation to limit the number of SIM cards registered in the name of one person to 10. There is also an interconnect clearinghouse coming soon. This has the backing of the president himself and therefore comes as a national policy, and not just a project by the regulator. The clearinghouse would serve, among other things, as a national firewall, and would do real time monitoring of all domestic and incoming international traffic. So the NCA would get to see the revenue flow from the international gateways real time.
Moreover, there is street naming and house numbering ongoing, and the national ID system is going to be done all over again to ensure there is a proper ID system and proper ID verification system. There has been suggestions that SIM registration should also be given to private VAS providers who have systems to link to the database of the various ID institutions in the country for speedy electronic verification, to prevent registration of SIM for people without unverifiable ID.
If all that is done well, Ghana would not need the 19 cents minimum ITR and one can confidently say SIM box fraud would either be reduced drastically, or be killed completely.
The National Communication Authority (NCA) will soon be calling for public consultation on four new telecom industry license categories, one of which is the single Interconnect Clearinghouse License, intended for a number of purposes including serving as a national firewall against a number of industry frauds.
Cabinet has sanctioned the announcement for public consultation on the four license categories and currently high level industry consultation is ongoing, pending a wider publication consultation later this month to discuss the implementation timelines.
The four license categories are Unified Licenses (for all telcos to have fixed line operations), three MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) licenses, three International Wholesale Transit (IWT) licenses and finally one Interconnect Clearinghouse (IC) License.
Whereas all the four license categories are important, of key interest to industry players is the interconnect clearinghouse license.
The license would create a one-stop-shop interconnect clearinghouse where all communication within the country and from overseas into the country would go for clearance before terminating on the intended network. The spectrum of communication which would go through the clearinghouse include calls, SMS and even data communication.
Apart from linking all the telecom networks in the country at one point, the clearinghouse would also link all internet exchanges and serve as the operator that mandates all traffic as legal before that communication is allowed to continue to the intended network or customer.
Effectively, it would be the connection point between telco, ISPs, Value Added Service VAS providers/app developers and international traffic carriers.
A similar player exists in Nigeria, but it is not compulsory for telecom players in that country to connect to it. But this writer can confirm that the one being proposed for Ghana would do more than what the Nigeria one does. And it would appear that industry players would be compelled to connect to the clearinghouse in Ghana because of the spectrum of services it is intended to provide.
Very often, telcos and their VAS providers send communication (SMS, ringtones, etc.) to people who have not subscribed to such services and charge them for it. But with a clearinghouse in place, such communication would be barred from reaching people who have not subscribed to them.
It is also very common to find fraudulent text messages and or calls from overseas phone numbers and messages on social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and others requesting recipients to perform some action. Responding to such messages could sometimes cost the recipient dearly.
But the clearinghouse, working as a firewall, would sieve out such unwanted messages and prevent them from entering into the gateways of the country, much less hitting any mobile network and getting to customers.
The clearinghouse would be a private telecom service provider and would also be regulated by almost the same regulations that apply to other industry players. It would be required to meet the laid down quality of service standards and other regulatory requirement and be penalized when they fail on any of those.
SIM Boxing
Ghana has been grappling with the lingering menace of SIM box fraud, where some fraudsters here and abroad route calls from overseas through the internet and terminate them through local SIM cards fitted into devices called SIM boxes. That way they create the impression those calls were generated locally, so they pay only local rates and rob the country of huge sums of money.
But to the extent that all those calls come from overseas, a national firewall, in the form of the interconnect clearinghouse would bar such fraudulently routed traffic from entering the country.
So the overseas carriers who give traffic to SIM box fraudsters to bring to Ghana will have problems if they do not use the approved routes, i.e. the gateways of the telcos and any approved private international wholesale transit (IWT) operator.
Kenya has a national firewall, which prevents calls from abroad going through unapproved routes from entering into that country. So SIM box operators do not find Kenya attractive, even though the telecom industry in Kenya is very big.
But in Ghana, the industry regulator, NCA has been pushing telecom operators to establish systems on their own to fight SIM boxing, and it has not worked so far.
NCA tried to do real time monitoring of telcos international gateways through a private company called GVG (Global Voice Group) from Haiti. But it was not clear how that was going to stop SIM box fraud, since there was no talk about the monitoring systems also working as a firewall.
But the coming clearinghouse is said to have presidential backing and is therefore a national policy, other than just a project by the NCA, to ensure sanity in the system and to also prevent fraud originating both here and abroad in the telecom space.
VAS providers
The telecom operators have been duly informed about the clearinghouse and the other licensing categories, and some of them have issues with its implications for their respective businesses. But they shy away from making public pronouncement on it until actual implementation.
However, their VAS partners seem to be very glad about the clearinghouse because the net benefits to the VAS industry in Ghana are vast.
Chief Operating Officer at TXTGhana, Eyome Ackah, who worked with almost all telcos in this country before joining the VAS industry believes the interconnect clearinghouse is a fantastic idea because it would inject some regulatory regime into the telco-VAS players relationship and also stop the telcos from bluffing the VAS players.
“Currently we deal with telcos purely on relationship and so they can decide to bluff or cut you off as a VAS player if they are not happy with you. But I believe that relationship needs to be properly regulated so that the telcos would not be able to bluff,” he said.
He noted that with the clearinghouse onboard, VAS players would just have to go to the clearinghouse for connectivity to all telcos at a go before going to each telco to talk business based on the new regulatory regime.
Eyome Ackah said the clearinghouse system is expected to inject some regulation into the VAS revenue share arrangement between telcos and VAS providers.
“Under the telcos interconnect regulations, if a call originates from telco ‘A’ and terminates on telco ‘B’, telco ‘A’ is supposed to pay telco ‘B’ a specified amount of 5Gp per every minute of that call. But with VAS, the telcos unilaterally decide what to charge and the VAS providers have no say. And they take between 55% and 70% of the revenue,” he said.
General Manager of MobileContent, Conrad Nyur said regulation under the clearinghouse arrangement is important because it promises to kill the way telcos unilaterally decide on what percentage of the revenue they took without recourse to the views of VAS providers and content owners.
“They often tell us the share they take is based on orders from their mother companies abroad. I think that is unfortunate because those mother companies do not work in Ghana so they do not know what pertains in our economy,” he said.
Nyur however believes the best purpose the clearinghouse could serve is to be a firewall against fraud, particularly the ones being perpetrated by unregistered VAS players and individuals both in Ghana and overseas, sending communications into the country without any restrictions.
General Manager of SMSGH, Alex Adjei Bram believes some of the work of the clearinghouse is already being done by telcos and some VAS providers, but the one-stop-shop clearinghouse idea is not a bad one to the extent that it would ensure sanity and organization in the system.
“We came together to form WASPAG (Wireless Application Services Providers Association of Ghana) for the purposes of self-regulating to clean up the abuse in the system, but I believe when the clearinghouse comes in the work will be much easier because it will serve to prevent any such abuses at one point and save us the headache,” he said.
Adjei Bram also believes the clearinghouse would bring organization into the VAS/telco relationship because even customers wanting to stop a service from a particularly short code or service provider would just have to go to the clearinghouse and give one instruction.
“It would also streamline several of the industry processes that otherwise involved various stages of implementation by different bodies,” he said.
Adjei Bram also thinks the clearinghouse would take care of some of the equipment some telcos invest in specifically for VAS services, adding that “when that happens the telcos will spend less and therefore feel comfortable to adjust the revenue share arrangement so that the VAS players and content owners could get a lot more of the money to share.”
He described the current VAS revenue share arrangement as “a dumper on the industry”, saying that an adjustment in favor of VAS players and content owners will be “the greatest heaven.”
Questions
Meanwhile, questions are being asked of the implications of the clearinghouse to the industry. First of all, telcos already have automated interconnect arrangement which is working fine so far, so questions are being asked as to why a telco should be compelled to a separate clearinghouse.
Secondly, what would be the cost implications of the private clearinghouse to telcos, which have already invested in their existing and effective interconnect systems – and what happens if the interconnect clearinghouse holds up interconnect fees belonging to telcos, just like what is happening in Nigeria, where the clearinghouse owes telcos?
Thirdly, an alarm is being raised that connecting all internet exchanges to a clearinghouse could mean monitoring and censoring of the internet communications including private emails, which could infringe on people’s freedoms on the internet. It brings up the term ‘North Korea’ in the minds of pundits. Some have even suggested that the interconnect clearinghouse is simply ‘evil’.
Blu Telecommunications, a wholly Ghanaian-owned and managed telecommunications company would soon launch Ghana’s second 4G LTE network on the back of infrastructure built by Huawei Technologies, the world’s leading telecommunications equipment manufacturer.
The partnership with Huawei Technologies offers Blu Telecommunications the ability to provide uninterrupted high-speed and reliable data, voice, WiFi and video on demand services to residential and business subscribers.
By the first quarter of 2014, Huawei had launched 126 commercial LTE networks and had signed more than 290 commercial LTE contracts globally.
Huawei LTE has a global business footprint on six continents and provides coverage to more than 100 capitals and nine top global financial centers.
On 3rd October 2013, Huawei launched the first ever 4G LTE TDD network in Ghana during the ITU Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting (RPM-AFR) for the WTDC-14 held in Accra.
Huawei’s strong LTE innovation places it at the forefront of the industry and the most trusted partner for BLU Telecom.
“Huawei will build low TCO & customer experience oriented LTE TDD with Blu for Ghanaians to enjoy an affordable 1Mbps above speed anytime, anywhere,” a statement from the company said.
The partnership also involves the provision of Huawei 4G modems, mobile Wi-Fi and CPE (LTE routers) providing high performance and improved mobile broadband user experience.
Meanwhile, Blu Telecom is ready to launch its services this month, after running a test of its network in selected communities in Accra through a scheme it called “Founders Campaign”, where they gave their first one hundred customers free devices and unlimited data to test and experience the network.
The company has said it would maintain the founders and continue to depend on them for testing and feedback on every new product it introduces after the launch of commercial service later this month.
Blu has said it would embark on a consumer advocacy campaign aimed at making affordability and optimum consumer satisfaction a norm in the data market.
Indeed, its planned affordability drive is not out of place, as the most recent GSMA Intelligence report clearly indicated that affordable smart devices and data packages are the key drivers of data consumption across the world, particularly in sub-Sahara Africa.
Ahead of the commercial launch, Blu would organize a Founders Experience to allow the 100 selected founders to share their experiences on the network with the public.
Six mobile voice/data players and three data service players with voice licenses
The second part of this article looks at whether the 4G players would also sell to multinationals, and also touches on the challenges the cedi depreciations poses to the new entrants and whether population size played any role at all in the decision to license nine telcos in Ghana.
Will the 4G LTE operators also sell?
It has been established that five mobile licenses were given to Ghanaians or companies with Ghanaian involvement, but they are now in the hands of foreigner largely. Glo is for a Nigerian, and so far it is only the BWA licenses (4G LTE operators) which remain firmly in the hands of Ghanaians. But given the kind of muscle needed to sustain a telecoms service and make it profitable in this harsh economic conditions and highly competitive market, one wonders how long the Ghanaians would hold on to the BWA licenses without the help of multinationals.
John Taylor is the man behind Surfline, and he recently said after paying US$6million for the BWA license (which he described as expensive even though NCA thinks it is cheap), he has spent over US$100million dollars to build the network to cover only Accra and Tema. And according to him, “we are still spending.” Meanwhile, he has more than 100 districts capitals in nine more regions to cover.
Unlike the other networks, which had coverage beyond Accra at the time the multinationals came in, Surfline started from scratch with coverage in Accra and Tema, with just about 220 cell sites, which makes it the biggest 4G LTE network in Africa right now. But pundits say 220 cell sites are still not enough to cover Accra, as the existing networks are each using up to 450 cell sites in Accra alone, and are still having problems providing excellent service. Indeed some Surfline customers complain of “no coverage” in some parts of Accra.
Blu is set to launch soon but it is not clear how much they have invested in building their network after paying US$6million for the license. Blu CEO Emmanuel Collision recently told journalists “we raised millions of dollars locally and invested in building our network.” Blu is still running tests prior to the launch in small communities in Accra; grow gradually to cover the whole of Accra before even thinking about going outside the capital. The reason is admittedly cost. Goldkey has not even turned on their golden key yet. They have remained virtually silent on what they intend to do with their BWA license.
Dollar Depreciations and Competition
The other challenge facing the BWA licensees is that after acquiring licenses at US$6million and investing several millions of dollars into building their networks, Ghana’s currency has depreciated so heavily just at the time they are about starting operations. This might mean they now have to make twice the effort to recoup their investment. And that is not going to be easy in the face of the stiff competition from six traditional operators and several other existing ISPs, which are already complaining of dwindling revenues. Pundits say the BWA operators must necessarily be affordable to remain competitive. But experts say that would not sit well with them, if they have to recoup the heavy dollar-based investments they have made so far. Moreover, there is another 4G LTE player, Yoomy, preparing to enter the market through a local partner. They already have an ISP license on 2300MHz frequency.
Secondly, there are not many 4G devices that would drive consumption of 4G LTE. The few 4G devices available are not affordable; and mass consumption, which means affordable devices are key to the profitability of the 4G operators. Surfline is currently giving free devices (dongle, Mi-fi and Router) for each data bundles purchased. But the limitation is they, like the other BWA licensees, are limited to data service for now. They cannot provide voice services. And so even though affordable handsets for 2.6GHz LTE do exist, Ghana’s 4G operators have no use for them now.
So the question on the minds of pundits is, would the LTE guys also sell like the other six did because of the huge cost involved in providing telecoms service, plus the pressure of competition in Ghana, characterize by seven active operators with two more to come in a relatively smaller population like Ghana?
That question is more relevant because, despite the obviously huge profitability telecoms promises, banks in Ghana have not done well in supporting locals to invest in the industry and keep Ghanaians in the mainstream. The banks are quick to advance loans to foreign companies in the industry. So there is a doubt as to whether the Ghanaians in the industry now will remain in there over the next five to 10 years.
Telco-population analysis
So effectively, there are now nine licensed telcos in a relatively smaller populations like Ghana. It would appear that the NCA and government for that matter, was more focused on raising money into the consolidated fund, than considering the size of the country’s population in awarding the licenses. They did not appear to have considered the profitability of the telcos, which would then make them able to expand and provide service even in areas that offer very low average revenue per user (ARPU). Government’s strategy seem to have been focused on quantity rather than the profitability of the investors.
But the NCA has often argued that if Ghana was not a profitable telecoms market, as some often argue, how come the multinationals kept trouping to Ghana even though there were other multinationals already in the Ghanaian market?
So more licenses have been given out with the hope that service would be expanded to the “unserved and under-served”, but that has not necessarily happened without the intervention of a universal access program run by the state-owned Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC). The same telcos, which complain of dwindling revenues due to competition, pay one per cent of their profits every year into the universal access fund. And GIFEC claims it is investing the fund properly, but the telcos privately raise questions about the use of fund.
Figures from the Ghana Statistical Service indicates that when Mobitel was licensed in 1990, Ghana’s population was estimated at 15.04million; then Celltel came in 1993 when the population was estimated at 15.431million (plus 391,000). Spacefon came in 1995 when population was estimated at 16.23million (plus 799,000); Onetouch came to meet a population estimate of 16.644million (plus 414,000) in 1996; Westel came 1997 when population was 17.07million (plus 426,000), and Glo came in 11 years later in 2008, when populations was 22.532million (plus 5.462million).
Now there is Blu, Surfline, and Goldkey here from June 2013 when population was estimated around 26.43million. So within the 23 years from Mobitel to the BWA licensees, Ghana’s population has increased by 11.39million. So for the additional 11.39million people, there are at least six additional telcos. And all of them have licenses for nationwide coverage. And while rural coverage is still not the best, urban dwellers seem to have more than necessary number of telcos to choose from.
Other jurisdictions
Indeed in countries where lots of telcos have been licensed, some of them have licenses to cover only smaller communities rather than nationwide. In Nigeria, for instance, where the population is estimated at about 170 million, only four telcos have licenses to go nationwide; MTN, Etisalat, Airtel and Glo. There are five other smaller ones. But that is understandable in the population of 170million.
In India, the population is over 1.27 billion and they have 13 telcos, plus a few others which are limited to covering smaller communities. In fact one of the supposed nationwide coverage license holders in India, T24 Mobile has 0% market share. Recently some telcos folded up in India because of non-profitability.
United Kingdom is a more advanced economy with a population of over 64million. It has five major telcos with nationwide coverage, BT (British Telecom – fixed line service), Vodafone, EE (everything everywhere), O2 and 3 (Three). But there are 43 MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), which are limited to specific coverage areas.
United States has four major nationwide telcos in a population of over 320 million. The telcos are AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. There is a fifth nationwide operator called US Cellular, but it is virtually non-existent. There are smaller telcos in the US, which are limited to smaller coverage areas by license. And there is hardly any complaint about dwindling revenues for telcos in the US and in the UK, because the populations are big enough to accommodate a certain number of smaller operators with limited coverage areas.
But Ghana, with an estimated population of 27million, has seven active telcos with two more yet to launch. And all have nationwide coverage licenses. It is therefore not a surprise to find telcos in Ghana complain of dwindling revenues and possible mergers. Indeed, some former officials of NCA have said in public that eventually just about four or five telcos would stand in Ghana. And that day seem to be fast approaching as more telcos get into the system and threaten to even neutralize revenues further.
India is a typical example of where telcos revenues dwindled so much, they started increasing call rates and some telcos simply folded up recently. Ghana has also started experiencing increases in call, SMS and data rates. And some argue the telcos might become a cartel as a way of surviving the harsh conditions; stiff competition, no-mercy regulator and some unfriendly citizens who cut telecom fibre and steal cables, fuel, batteries and other equipment at telcos’ base stations.
So the question still remains, that in ‘little’ Ghana with nine licensed telcos, faced with dwindling revenue, would some telcos fold up soon or merge with others as predicted – would the new entrants also sell to multinationals or partner with foreigners because of the cost of sustaining telecoms network in such harsh economic conditions and competitive market, or would the banks be bold to support the locals to survive – and lastly, with the threat of dwindling revenue, would any multinational be willing to come into Ghana and partner with startups like Surfline, Blu or Goldkey, even if any of the three want foreign partners in the future?
Six mobile voice/data players and three data service players with voice licenses
In March 1992 the first ever mobile phone call was made in Ghana. It was on Mobitel, which became Buzz, now Tigo. It was then the only Mobile Cellular Licensee in Ghana. The technology then was ETACS (European Total Access Communication System), which was an analogue network, as opposed to GSM, which is digital. SMS (text messaging) was not even possible then. And the mobile handsets used to be called ‘timber’ because they were big and visible. Users could not pocket them like they do today. Mobitel gave birth to the famous Ghanaian parlance “megyena abontin na miri kasa yi”, to with “I am outdoors as I speak with you”, as opposed to talking to people from a table top telephone, which is usually indoors.
The Mobitel license was given in 1990 to a group of Ghanaians, who fronted for Millicom Ghana Limited. There was one Richard Darko, and it would also appear that New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was part of that Ghanaian team who got the first mobile cellular license in this country. He has always said he brought Mobitel to Ghana.
A year after Mobitel went live, in 1993 Celltel Limited (now Kasapa Telecoms Limited) was also licensed. It had a brand name Celltel, which later became Kasapa, now Expresso. The license was again given to a Ghanaian, Prince Kofi Kludjeson. It was for an AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), which is also an analogous network on a frequency 850MHz. But it converted to CDMA 2000 1X in 2005 within the same frequency and remains the sole CDMA operator in Ghana till date.
After Celltel, the first GSM license was given to Scancom Limited in 1995 and they started the first GSM network called Spacefon in 1996. Spacefon became Areeba, now MTN, which is probably the runaway market leader. There were two Ghanaians who had shares in Scancom then; Richmond Kwadwo Aggrey and the late David Hesse. There have been unconfirmed suggestions that the two had majority shares, but they offloaded a lot of it to their foreign partner, Investcom, for US$150,000, which industry experts think was a pittance.
In the same year Spacefon launched the first GSM service in Ghana, the national sole fixed line carrier, Ghana Telecom also got a mobile cellular license and they later started another GSM network in year 2000 with the brand name Onetouch, which is now Vodafone. Again the license was obviously in the hands of Ghanaians – the state. But now 70% of it is in the hands of Vodafone and 30% is still with the state.
Those were the days when SIM cards cost over a million old cedis. Spacefon then sold SIM cards for 600,000 cedis (GHC60) but Onetouch, which positioned itself as a prestigious and elitist network, sold a SIM card for 1.2million cedis (GHC120) then. This was without any air time preloaded. Just the SIM card cost that much. Obviously, mobile telephony was then the exclusive preserve of the rich and middle class in society. Today, however SIM cards are actually free. Even those who sell it for GHC1, give GHC1 airtime for every purchase.
Meanwhile, another Ghanaian-owned organization, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) collaborated with US-based Western Wireless and acquired a license for the Wireless Local Loop (WLL) and International Gateway. They formed a company called Western Telesystems Limited (Westel), which went live in 1998 operating in the fixed line and international gateway sector. One Ghanaian telecom expert, David Poku was instrumental in the setting up of Westel. Ghana government later bought the company and obtained a GSM mobile license. But no GSM service started until another multinational, Mo Ibrahim’s Zain acquired 65% shares of the company and started the GSM service. Zain then sold its majority shares to Bharti Airtel, which now operates the Airtel brand in Ghana.
Eleven years after Westel started; in 2008 another GSM license was given out, but this time to a Nigerian telecom giant, Globacom Limited. It went through an auction, and a Ghanaian company bided for it too but the cost, US$50.1million was too much for the Ghanaian so Glo won it. It took them four years to launch Ghana’s fifth GMS and sixth mobile cellular network on April 29, 2012.
So in essence, all the first five mobile cellular licenses in Ghana were given to either wholly-owned Ghanaian companies or to companies with Ghanaian involvement, except the Glo one.
All the GSM operators have since launched 3G networks in addition to their GSM operations. And the sole CDMA player has also improved to EVDO Rev A technology. But it is important to note that CDMA 2000 1X was already 3G as per International Telecoms Union (ITU) standards.
It is interesting to note that the first GSM network, Spacefon, now MTN, was also the first to go live with 3G in the country. But its 3G coverage was, for a long while, limited to the environs of its first UMTS (Universal Mobile Technology System) base station at Osu in Accra, until Zain/Airtel launched a 3G network across Accra and beyond, before the market leader stepped out of that “hen coop” of a 3G coverage area. Today, there are six networks running both 2G and 3G networks. And some have even done improvements and are advertising 3.5G (HSDPA) and 3.75G (HSPA+). But all of that came with some huge investments beyond the license acquisition fees.
Multinational Invasion
The initial multinational telecom brands in Ghana
Speaking of huge investments, it would appear that even though virtually all the telecom licenses in Ghana were awarded to Ghanaians or to companies with Ghanaian involvement, it is the multinationals, who later bought the networks that are making Ghana’s telecoms industry tick. Tigo is now 100% Millicom International baby. Investcom now owns 97.7% of Scancom (MTN). They are in court trying to kick out the Ghanaian minority shareholders.
It is important to note that unconfirmed reports have it that Investcom got majority shares in Spacefon for US$150,000 from the two Ghanaians (Aggrey and Hesse). They then got a loan from Merchant Bank (a local bank) and support from IMF to expand and later sold to MTN at US$2.5billion in a deal struck offshore Lebanon. The state got nothing substantial from that deal, except for some US$40million goodwill change that MTN offered government for a water project at Weija in Accra.
Onetouch is now 70% in the hands of Vodafone for US$900million less US$300million liabilities, and government still holds 30%. But Vodafone has always said government does not bear 30% of the operational cost and capital expenditure, even though it receives 30% of the profits. But it is also interesting to note that whereas MTN bought just a mobile operation from Areeba for US$2.5billion, government sold the totality of Ghana Telecom, including a fixed line service and a fibre optic backbone to Vodafone for the stated amount, US$900million. The deal has since been criticized as a raw one.
Westel first sold to government, then government sold majority shares to Mo Ibrahim for US$120million. He did not invest a penny, but flipped the shares over to Middle-Eastern multinational Zain for US$450million, and Zain later sold to Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel for an estimated US$1.1billion. Another offshore deal and nothing for the state. The industry laws in Ghana do not permit the state/regulator to participate in such negotiations and tax the parties in the transaction. There have been calls for the amendment of the law but they remain unchanged till date.
Celltel Limited had allegedly sold 80% shares to Hutchison Telecoms of Hong Kong. Eventually, the company went through the hands of several layers of owners and now it is being run by Sudan Telecoms (Sudatel), even though the original owner, Prince Kofi Kludjeson still claims ownership. He insist he never sold 80% to Hutchison, and that they had a partnership agreement but Hutchison did not pay any money to him. There have been a number of court judgments which took the control of the company out of Kludjeson’s hands. But he is still in court fighting for the company.
4G LTE Era
Three LTE players licensed
Fast forward to 4G LTE; in June 2013, three wholly Ghanaian-owned companies, Surfline Communications Limited, Blu Telecoms Limited and Goldkey Telecoms Limited were given Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licenses on the 2500 – 2690MHz spectrum band, which is suitable for 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution). Surfline is for John Taylor. Blu Telecom is for a group of young Ghanaians led by John Hoggley and Emmanuel Collision, and Goldkey is for Kwaku Bediako.
Each of the three BWA licensees had 18 months, ending November 2014 to start operations. It is barely a month to the deadline and only one, Surfline has launched in Accra. Blu Telecoms has given indication it will launch soon, as it is currently running tests on its network at various locations across the capital, Accra, and also interacting strategically with various groups, arguably to fashion out solutions to meet specific needs. Blu has given indication it would embark on a huge advocacy for universal access to the internet and it intends to use affordability as a tool in that campaign.
But Goldkey has remained virtually silent, and it appears they will not meet the deadline. And that comes with sanctions from the regulator, National Communication Authority. The last time anything was heard about Godkey was in September 2013, when it appointed UK-based merchant banking and operational Risk Management Company, Salamanca Group as Financial Advisors, and Omnia Strategy LLP as legal advisor for the rollout of 4G LTE in Ghana this year. Beside that there is no information on the Goldkey Properties website about the company’s involvement in the telecoms business, except pockets of dead news items on a few other websites.
The BWA licensees have been restricted to offering only data services for now. They have up to five years to cover 60% of all district capitals in the country with data services before they could do voice service, if they so wish. Some of them read that to mean they have to cover 60% out the number of district capitals in Ghana. But the regulator said it means they have to provide 60% coverage in all (100%) of the district capitals in the country. That is a tall order and capital intensive.
In the second part of this article, this writer would be asking whether the LTE players would also sell to foreign multinationals or the local banks would now wake up and take advantage of the coming data boom and invest to keep the licenses firmly in the hands of Ghanaians. It would also touch on whether there is any relationship between the number of telcos and Ghana’s population growth.
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