100 rural telephone sites built to boost access to mobile services

One hundred (100) rural telephony sites have been constructed and activated to over 400 communities, which did not have access to mobile services.

Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, who announced this said, added this were 85 repeater sites.

The next phase of the project, which involved the deployment of voice and data connectivity to 200 sites, had already commenced.

The Minister made these known at the launch of the Rural Telephony Project in Abenaso in the Eastern Region.

It is a partnership between MTN Ghana, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) and Huawei Technologies Limited.

The project is meant to extend the coverage of mobile telephone services to every part of the country, where access to such services are not available and where existing licensed operators have proven unable to expand their networks due to commercial, geographical and other constraints.

It is targeted to achieve 100 per cent nationwide mobile telephony service coverage.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful noted that there were about 1,020 communities without mobile signals and said GIFEC would work in partnership with the mobile network operators to tackle that by 2019.

Universal access, she added, would bring about opportunities to create and deliver goods and services at a lower fiscal and environmental cost.

She gave the assurance that her Ministry would continue to provide the necessary policy and regulatory regime, initiatives and projects, to facilitate the development of a reliable and cost-effective world class communications infrastructure.

Mr Selorm Adadevor, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, said the company was committed to “ensuring that every Ghanaian enjoyed the full benefits of the internet and emergence of digital technology”.

Source: GNA