Telecom players in co-location deals

Accra, Sept. 24, GNA - Ms Mawuena Adjo Dumor, Corporate Service Director of MTN, Ghana, on Wednesday said players in the industry had entered into strategic co-location deals in certain communities to enable each player to provide services to their subscribers using each other's cell sites.

She told journalists that the deal was an MTN initiative following the success of similar deals in MTN operations in Cameroon, where it had co-located with its competitors in areas where too many cell sites could lead to network interferences rather than quality service. "Our Chief Technical Officer, Mr Eben Albertyn chalked a success with co-location while he was in Cameroon so when he came to Ghana he thought it wise to replicate it and it was embraced by the other players," she said.

Ms. Dumor said the Ministry of Communications (MOC) and the National Communications Authority (NCA), the regulator, both gave their mandate for the co-locations deals to be undertaken. She said MTN believed that with the influx of multi-nationals into the Ghanaian telecom industry and its attendant infrastructural installations, co-location came handy as a way to prevent overcrowding of cell sites across the country.

"As market leader, our intention in seeking to co-exist with other players is to develop telecom infrastructure within the framework of government policy to use ICT and telecom as a key driver of national development."

Ms Dumor said besides the co-location programme, MTN on its own would double its investment into network infrastructure, adding that MTN would also continue to be socially sensitive.

Mr Albertyn confirmed that some of MTN's cells sites served as co-location facilities which served subscribers of other networks, while MTN subscribers also benefited from cell sites of other players. He said MTN needed the permission of the other players before it could divulge information on the specifics.

Major Albert Don-Chebe, Public Relations Director of Ghana Telecom/Vodafone, confirmed to the GNA in an interview that GT/Vodafone had co-location arrangements with other players on one-to-one basis. He explained: "The deal was on the basis of when I hook you on one of my cell sites you also hook me on one of yours. But more than one network could be hooked to one cell site."

Major Don-Chebe said the idea of co-location had been on paper for a long time but it was now that it was being implemented vigorously. Officials of other networks also confirmed to the GNA on phone that they were part of the co-location deal.