BY the last count, six telecommunications companies had been registered to operate mobile telephony industry in the country. Five of the companies are currently in a fierce competition for consumers from among the nearly 23 million population, while the sixth operator is feverishly preparing to launch its operations to make the market even more exciting.
From the 1990s to date, the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector has been very phenomenal making it possible for every village or hamlet to be accessed by cellular phone communications.
Indeed, cellular phones give true expression to the belief that the world has become a global village, making it easy for contacts to be made on any issue in every corner of the world.
Such is the high level of telephony penetration and the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on the cultures of the world that certain countries are taking steps to introduce regulations for the use of the Internet to the displeasure of advocates of a free society.
Ghana’s mobile penetration base is estimated to hit 60 per cent by the end of this year. At the end of last year, the penetration rate was about 50 per cent with nearly 11.8 million mobile phone subscribers.
Despite the growth in the mobile telephony market, the fixed line penetration is woefully just about two per cent with Vodafone enjoying a monopoly in this sector.
The mobile telephony penetration has outpaced the growth of Ghana’s bandwidth, which has created challenges for efforts at achieving cheaper internet cost and quick accessibility because as of last year, internet usage was 2.7 per cent as compared to 5.3 per cent in the whole of Africa.
In every street corner or community can be found young people trading in top-up credits for mobile phones while fuel stations and convenience shops trade in handsets and credits.
The Daily Graphic urges the government to intensify efforts to reduce cost of operations of ICT companies so that more Ghanaians can have access to mobile telephony and the Internet.
While the government takes steps to help Ghanaians to enjoy the benefits of ICT, the players also have a responsibility to provide affordable services to their customers.
We, therefore, support the call by the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, on players in the telecommunications industry to ensure fair and healthy competition to enable services to be extended to all consumers irrespective of their geographical location.
A look at the industry indicates that there is fierce competition among the players not only for subscribers but also for the country’s airspace.
The Vice-President was right when he noted that instead of the mobile phone companies sharing facilities such as masts to bring down cost of infrastructure and, thereby, reduce cost of services and products to the benefit of the consumer, the networks had entered into “mast war”.
The collective efforts that the Vice-President recommended, if properly regulated by the National Communications Authority (NCA), can provide the level playing field and a competitive environment to engender quality services at affordable prices to the people.
The erection of masts by mobile phone service operators especially on tall buildings and mountainous locations in the country has become an eyesore and a matter of concern to residents of those areas.
The Daily Graphic calls on the players in the telecommunications industry to harness the potential in the sector to leverage the country’s development agenda and to the advantage of the ever-growing list of clients in the mobile telephony industry.
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