Upper East Suffers Frequent Telecom Breakdowns

Telephone communication between the Upper East Region and the southern part of Ghana has witnessed rampant disruption during the past two weeks.

During the period, the link has collapsed at least on three occasions, which also rendered television transmission impossible.


Each of the interruptions lasted for about 24 hours before the link was eventually restored.


Explaining the situation to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Bolgatanga on Tuesday, Mr Musah Awudu, Regional Head of Ghana Telecom, said the first break two weeks ago was caused by lightening which struck the Koforidua repeater station, thereby disrupting the link between the Northern and the Southern sector.


"The National Telecommunication system is a whole chain linked by repeater stations every 30 kilometres."

A breakdown at any of the repeater stations brings about a collapse of the system.


Mr Awudu said latest disruptions, which occurred last Friday, came as a result of the collapse of the Atebubu link. In the event, telephone users in Bolgatanga and other parts of the Upper East could only call up to Tamale, with the southern sector remaining inaccessible.


"So you see, the cause of the problem is not from our region at all", he stated. The link was, however, restored towards 16:30 hours on Monday and television transmission also resumed.


As part of measures to contain further breakdowns in the communication link, the management of Ghana Telecom are making moves to install two-way SDH digital links in all the regions throughout the country by next year.