The Ghanaian government plans to deploy 4,400 4G and 5G telecom sites over the next three years to improve the country’s broadband connectivity coverage. The initiative was revealed last week by Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalization, at a press conference in Accra.
The telecoms sites will be built and deployed by Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC), the new neutral shared infrastructure company for 4G and beyond. These are 3,200 4G telecoms sites and 1,200 5G telecoms sites.
Through this initiative, the Ghanaian government hopes to reach 37 million end customers by 2028 and increase the 4G penetration rate to at least 80%. “Despite the launch of 4G in Ghana 9 years ago, the current 4G penetration rate is 15%, with the majority of the population using 3G networks ,” lamented Ms. Owusu-Ekuful. As for 5G, it should be launched before the end of the year.
It is also due to the delay observed in the extension of the 4G network across Ghana that the government decided that there would be no auction for 5G, but a neutral network shared by operators. telecoms. In this way, broadband will no longer be concentrated in the main cities to the detriment of rural areas. The latter are often neglected by telecom operators because they do not represent strong commercial potential.
As a reminder, Ghana had 22.29 million mobile Internet subscribers in the third quarter of 2023 for a penetration rate of 69.1% according to data from the National Communications Authority (NCA). Added to this are 113,640 fixed Internet subscribers and 1,420 wireless broadband subscribers.
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