The Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has clarified that mobile telecommunications giant MTN has not been excluded from the 5G rollout plans.
This follows concerns raised over the telecommunication company’s exclusion during the formation of Next-Gen Infrastructure Company (NGIC), which has been awarded the 5G license.
According to the Communications minister, MTN will be involved at some point.
“I don’t know who created that impression. Somebody threw it out there, and nobody spoke to me or any of those involved in putting this consortium together before spreading this false alarm. It is not true.
“…Discussions are ongoing. All network operators in the country are being offered the opportunity to take up equity in this Next-Gen InfraCo, all of them, including MTN,” she said on Citi FM.
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It will be recalled that the government announced a partnership with seven industry leaders to develop a new shared infrastructure aimed at delivering affordable 5G mobile broadband services across Ghana.
The seven partners include Ascend Digital, K-NET, Radisys, Nokia, Tech Mahindra, and two telecommunications companies – AT Ghana and Telecel Ghana.
The government said these partners have formed the Next-Gen Infrastructure Company (NGIC), which has been awarded a 5G license. NGIC is expected to launch 5G services across Ghana within the next six months, with plans for further expansion into other parts of Africa.
The government said NGIC will be the first entity to build a nationwide 4G/5G network, and it will collaborate with telcos to introduce affordable 4G/5G-enabled fixed wireless access (FWA) customer premises equipment (CPE) and smartphones in Ghana this year.
The partnership aims to enhance the lives of Ghanaians by introducing digital services in education, healthcare, and digital payment transactions through peer-to-peer (P2P), peer-to-merchant (P2M), and merchant-to-merchant (M2M) systems.
This initiative is expected to reduce the digital divide and promote financial inclusion.