Ministry of Communication: Phase 1 Of 2,016 Cell Sites Construction To Be Completed Next Year
The construction of two thousand and sixteen (2016) cell sites in rural communities across Ghana under the Rural Telephony and Digital inclusion project will be completed in 2023.
This is according to the Minister for Communication, Ursula Owusu Ekuful.
The project is aimed at increasing and improving voice and data connectivity in the rural areas where over 4.5 to 5 million people are sidelined in network connections due to “low economic activity and the sparse population there”.
According to her, before the project was launched in 2020 by President Akufo-Addo, over 3,000 communities in Ghana had zero connectivity to voice and mobile data due to Mobile Network Operators’ reluctance to build cell sites in such areas.
The Rural Telephony and Digital inclusion project, she said, is being funded with a €155 million facility from the China Exim Bank.
Currently, she said 890 sites have been built with 403 on-air delivering voice and data services as of July 2022.
She explained that “The Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital inclusion project is therefore constructing 2016 cell sites half of which are solar powered in unserved and underserved rural communities across the country; deploying low-cost based stations using the Huawei rural star innovative solution. The project is being implemented in partnership with Huawei and Ghana National Technical Import and Export Corporation with €155 million secured by the government of Ghana from the China Exim Bank.
“The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications is the implementing agency for the government of Ghana. The Huawei Rural star solution was developed in Ghana and reduces the total cost of ownership by 60% compared with traditional connectivity solutions. It will enhance network connection via a low-cost 3G service and will be upgraded to 4G data and voice that can be scaled up on demand as communities develop.”
The Minister noted that “the roll-up of phase one is ongoing and it is planned to be completed by 2023 with all 2,016 sites commissioned and integrated with the Mobile Network Operators (MNO).”
The project will enable the government to increase revenue, reduce the digital divide, increase financial inclusion and overall socio-economic improvement, creating a positive impact on our GDP, she outlined.
Ursula added, “We are currently working on the documentation for phase two of the project which will cover the remaining 1.1 million subscribers and upgrade the network to 4G for all subscribers”.
As of June 2022, reported voice traffic was 38, 629, 463 voice minutes and 62,014 gigabytes of data traffic with 507,000 subscribers, she said and added that with the government’s Telephony, some 3.4 million subscribers will be reached.
Speaking at a press conference, she said the Ministry has mandated national roaming.
This, she explained, will allow phones to “automatically connect to the mobile network with the best quality of service available in any area regardless of what operator one is primarily subscribed to. This telephony network has been dubbed RuralCom”.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
