MTN restates commitment to MNP

Accra, June 27, GNA - Mobile telecommunication giant MTN on Monday reiterated its commitment to the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), saying it had 93consistently played fairly and adhered fully to all NCA (National Communication Authority) directives on the project".

"We believe that this will eventually impact positively on our operations and cause us to have a windfall," the Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr Michael Ikpoti, said at a meeting with Editors in Accra.

Mr Ikpoti said MTN was confident that most Ghanaians, who had been on other networks, would see this as a great opportunity to join the company 93because we are best placed to continue to meet their evolving needs".

He said MTN would absorb all porting fees, adding 93we will continue to invest in our network to enable us to deliver on quality services".

Mr Ikpoti said between 2010 and early 2011, MTN invested 285 million dollars to establish two Data and Switch Centres in Accra and Kumasi to boost network quality.

"An additional data centre is currently being built in Accra and will be commissioned soon and all this will enable us to provide even greater cost-effective and quality voice and data services to our subscribers."

Mr Ikpoti said the largest growth opportunity now lay in Mobile Data, pointing out that last year, mobile data traffic worldwide tripled in comparison to 2009.

"With Internet penetration in Ghana being less than five per cent, there is obviously huge potential for growth. Mobile data is currently, and will increasingly become more so, the focus of MTN Ghana in future."

He referred to the successful landing of MTN's 90 million-dollar WACS submarine cable to help to increase the bandwidth for voice and data transmission.

Laying of cables has started so that they can be deployed in 2012 as promised, he said.

The telecom giant recently launched the MTN Business which, it said, provided business solutions to large, medium and small-scale businesses.

On taxes, Mr Ikpoti said from 2008 to 2011, MTN had paid more than GH¢981 million.

Mr Clement Asante, Acting Chief marketing Officer, said with only a few days to the commencement of the MNP on July 1, the level of awareness is very low.

He said numbers that could not be ported included those that have been blacklisted, disconnected, reported stolen and not registered.

Mr Asante said the process of porting would be completed in a maximum of 24 hours, but clients will lose all products of the previous telecom provider after the process.