2020 polls: Telcos assure stable network on December 7
The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has said that it’s members are implementing measures “to provide resilient network quality across the country as the nation heads to the polls on December 7, 2020, and the festive season.”
The Chamber says network audit assessments have been undertaken by its members which comprise of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) providing various services including voice, data and SMS.
“The outcome of the audits has led to numerous deployments and actions to ensure a stable network across all areas with potential mass gatherings,” the Chamber said in a statement. “The industry is also partnering with law enforcement agencies to facilitate patrol of fibre infrastructure routes across the country”.
Additionally, the Chamber said it was coordinating with the National Engineering Coordinating Team (NECT), to liaise with authorities to suspend all construction works around routes where critical utility infrastructure exists for the next two weeks to safeguard the country from potential network disruptions.
CEO of the Chamber, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, said, “These collaborations are to cement our efforts towards building a resilient network to support and augment Ghana’s electoral process. We have in place secure and resilient systems to aid the seamless transmission of data and we are fully committed to the process, providing transparency to all our stakeholders to build upon the trust from previous years.”
Beyond the elections, the industry is expected to implement other critical interventions to support the Christmas and New Year activities.
Customers are entreated to make use of the 24/7 digital channels, 24hr call centre routes, as well as the round-the-clock service centres which will operate extra hours to support general customer care experience, the Chamber added.
Telcos given extra spectrum
The National Communications Authority (NCA), the regulator of the industry, said in November that it had granted an additional temporary spectrum at no cost to MTN and Vodafone to improve their service to customers.
The extra five Megahertz (MHz) spectrum was made available to the network operators in April 2020 and will last throughout the election period and the festive season.
“In anticipation of a further spike in consumer demand during the election period and Christmas season, the extra spectrum has been made available to MTN and Vodafone at no charge from the regulator in order to prevent congestion and keep costs reasonable to consumers,” the NCA noted in a statement.