Ghana has woken up from its state-run wholesale 5G dream, awarding spectrum to private operators that aim to succeed where the government has failed.
According to this Bloomberg report, one of these operators is not wasting any time.
"We plan to launch the service in December this year on our own network," declared Moh Damush, CEO of Telecel, in the report.
Telecel is one of two operators – the other being MTN – that has been allocated a chunk of spectrum by Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA), after it ended an exclusive arrangement with state-run wholesaler Next Gen Infraco (NGIC).
In the case of Telecel, it has secured three lots of 2.3-GHz spectrum. It hasn't divulged how much it paid or the duration of the licence though.
MTN has been a bit more forthcoming. It has been awarded 2x20 MHz of 700-MHz spectrum, and 3x50 MHz of 3-GHz spectrum, paying around $101 million for each frequency band. The licences are valid for the next 15 years.
"Following the issuance of the spectrum licences, the company will deploy the 5G spectrum in addition to its existing spectrum stock, to strengthen network capacity, enhance service quality, and improve customer experience across Ghana. It will be critical in assisting us to drive growth in 5G mobility as well as in fulfilling our aspirations to the home connectivity in Ghana," MTN said.
"MTN Ghana will keep the market informed of material developments as it advances the rollout of the newly awarded spectrum and high-speed 5G services aimed at enhancing customer experience across the country."
The frequency allocation took place after the NCA decided in July to amend the terms of NGIC's wholesale 5G licence, removing its exclusive right to operate Ghana's sole 5G network.
The NCA said at the time that the public interest would be better served by a competitive wholesale 5G network that "promotes investment, innovation, network resilience, service quality and wider access to advanced communication services".
The spectrum allocation process marks the end of Ghana's experiment with a single national 5G network.
NGIC was unveiled with great fanfare in May 2024. A public-private partnership that included local players AT Ghana and Telecel – as well as various vendors including Radisys, Nokia and Tech Mahindra, among others – it initially aimed to launch services within six months of its establishment.
However, the launch was repeatedly delayed, and the network didn't go live until March this year. Even then, the network boasted a footprint of just 49 sites, 43 of which were located in and around the capital Accra.
That led the NCA to propose removing the aforementioned exclusivity clause.
Launching NGIC was an odd decision given Ghana's private operators seem to have done a fairly good job up to this point of rolling out mobile infrastructure.
Indeed, according to the GSMA, 3G and 4G population coverage in Ghana stood at more than 99% as of the end of 2024, making it the best performer in West Africa, begging the question: why mess with a winning formula?
NGIC said in July it remains fully operational and committed to "delivering Ghana's next-generation digital infrastructure".
However, given its struggles up to this point and the fact that now it has to contend with two seasoned telcos in MTN and Telecel, the prognosis for NGIC doesn't look good.
Source: https://www.telecoms.com/5g-6g/telecel-ghana-targets-december-5g-launch
