The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) says the spectrum that would be freed from the migration of analogue to digital television systems by 2015 could triple mobile broadband capacity.
Further the West African nation aims to lead 11 million broadband connections by 2020, making it possible for Ghanaians to access quality broadband service with very affordable mobile devices, says the GSMA.
“People will be able to use their phones and other affordable mobile devices to connect to the internet and update their Facebook account and also watch live video streaming on Youtube and do much more than they are able to do now,” said Peter Lyons, director of Spectrum Policy for the GSMA, Africa and Middle East Region.
He added that the increased broadband capacity would also create 930 000 jobs and power e-governance, e-health, m-health, LTE (long-term evolution) and education.
“Increased broadband and additional jobs will at current tax levels also lead to additional taxes for government and there would be increase in the country’s Gross Domestic Product,” he added.
Lyon said it was important for the spectrum to be harmonised with those of other countries so that affordable mobile devices could be used across countries for the same quality of digital and broadband experience.
He therefore urged Ghana’s National Communication Authority (NCA) to expedite action on the migration saying, “Without the release of spectrum in 2015 Ghana would only have 7 million mobile broadband connections by 2020.”
The world is moving towards phasing out analogue TV sets for digital TV by June 2015, but Ghana is working towards completing the process even a year earlier in 2014.
The completion of the migration from analogue to digital would mean a lot of the spectrum used by TV broadcasters would become free because the digital system enables the use of a small space of spectrum for more channels and better quality pictures.
Lyon further explained that under the digital system the TV stations would be able to broadcast 22 Standard Definition channels or four High Definition (HD) channels on the same 8Mhz frequency on which they currently broadcast only one poor quality channel.
Director of Regulatory Administration at the NCA, Joshua Peprah said efforts are far advanced for Ghana to complete the analogue to digital migration by 2014, a year earlier than the global deadline.
He explained that migration does not mean an instant phasing out of all analogue TV sets, because there is a provision for people to acquire decoders like the MultiTV Digibox to convert digital signals to analogue for them to also watch quality pictures on their TV set.
He said there are plans to bring in affordable decoders when the time comes so majority of Ghanaians could have access to them and also enjoy multiple free to air and paid channels on their analogue TV sets.
Peprah said government’s policy direction would also favour local manufacture of decoders and that would create more jobs for Ghanaians as well.
Share
