Celltel Telecom Company has embarked on a programme to expand mobile telecommunication service to reach rural areas and make it very affordable for them.
Areas that would be covered for the first phase that ends this year are Koforidua, Akosombo, Aburi, Winneba, and Ho. As a result 50 base stations out of 120 programmed for the year would be in operation.
Mr Frederick Opare Ansah, Technical Manager of Celltel, announced this on Wednesday during a tour with newsmen and Mr John Achuliwor, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communication, at the company's staging centre at Tema.
He said at present a new switch with 75,000 subscriber base capacity has been installed and would be expanded to 150,000 to propel Celltel into the digital arena.
The Deputy Minister assured Celltel of government's support and said his ministry would not do anything that would hamper the success of any indigenous company.
He said telecommunication would be the driving force for development of the economy in this era.
Mrs. Majorie Ekua Ampah, General Manager of Celltel, said though Celltell's tariff is the lowest, with the help of their investor, Hutchison telecom company of Hong Kong, the programme would still make the service more affordable to the rural poor.
She said it was sad that in this era of telecommunication technology, only about 500,000 people have access to mobile phones in a population of about 19 million.
Professor Basil Lokko, Executive Director for Administration and Finance of Celltel, said the customer base for the telecom service is rather in the rural areas.
