BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY MEDIA FOR AFRICA

Ghana's telcos flex muscle to conquer growing market

Ghana's telcos flex muscle to conquer growing market
By Paul Adepoju
10 Jul 2015

Ghana's telecoms firms aim to improve their quality of services and access as they announce plans to extend coverage to yet untapped parts of the country.

MTN Ghana has spent $2.4 billion on network upgrades and expansion since it began operations about nine years ago in that country, according to corporate services executive of MTN Ghana, Cynthia Lumor.

She added that the company also plans to spend $103 million to expand and upgrade its network in Ghana this year.

"The fact that over 14 million subscribers in Ghana have selected MTN as their network of choice means we have a certain responsibility," she said.

Other networks are also investing to improve their quality of services to remain competitive in the market.

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Airtel Ghana's recent moves suggest it is targeting premium subscribers through its Airtel Premier Initiative. The customers enjoy several tech and non-tech services including social events.

Although mobile operators continue to announce major achievements and efforts to improve services and expand coverage, there are mixed feelings among the subscribers over the general performance of networks.

Fiifi Baidoo, who heads Accra-based iSpace, noted that the investments in the improvement of telecoms services are paying off as the quality of service has generally improved in Ghana.

"In general, there has been good improvement in terms of quality," he said. He added that competition has brought about a reduction in cost even as telecos compete to offer best services.

"Cost is reasonable since there is a fight and battle for who has the best data service. It has become affordable with various bundles and packages with social media being free on most of them."

He however noted that the best data services are only in the cities, while services are 'barely okay' in rural and remote areas.

"Reach and reliability are major issues that need to be worked on," he said. The power outage situation in the country, he said, is also impacting the quality of telecoms services.

"The current power situation has stalled stability," he said. "The power issue has been a pain and has slowed down the achievement of the full potentials of the telecoms companies," he told ITWeb Africa.

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