Mobile Network Operators come together

Accra, (Greater Accra) 11 March '99,

Mr John Mahama, Minister of Communications on Wednesday inaugurated the Ghana Association of Mobile Network Operators (GAMNO) with a call on them to invest in telecom connectivity in Africa. He asked them to co-operate with other local investors and take advantage of the increasing opportunities for the development of telecom infrastructure. The Minister stressed the "need to increase access to telecom that, in the next five years, all our people should enjoy the facility". It is hoped that the current 40,000 cellular lines would be increased to about 200,000, and must be extended to hospitals, schools and the rural areas. Mr Mahama said since the Telecom Reform programmes started about four years ago, there has been a jump of 100 per cent in subscriber lines .

Consultants would soon be appointed to assist the National Communications Authority (NCA) in addressing urgent issues, he said. These include providing outstanding licences to members of the association, and setting out guidelines for frequency management, as well as pricing and interconnection. Mr Mahama reminded the association that even though "a remarkable progress" has so far been made by the mobile network operators, a lot remains to be done because most of the population are still denied easy access to telephone service. He asked the association to give priority to strategies that would facilitate access to their services through reduced access charges. Mr Mahama said they could do that by establishing joint and common use of infrastructure including towers, joint facilities for training and the promotion of affordable tariffs. Mr Prince Kofi Kludjeson, Chairman of GAMNO said the Association had so far paid more than 10 billion cedis in direct and indirect taxes, since mobile telephone companies started operation four years ago in the country. About 80 million US dollars have also been invested by the companies into the nation's economy while they have promoted development in industry, commerce and agriculture, he said.. GRi