Ghana - Key Statistics, Regulatory & Fixed-Line Telecoms Overviews

Synopsis

Ghana led the way in telecommunications liberalisation and deregulation in Africa when it privatised Ghana Telecom as early as 1996. Following the exit of the investor, the company was re-privatised to Vodafone in 2008. Similarly, the second national operator, Westel, was re-privatised in 2007 and became a member of the Zain Group, one of Africa’s leading mobile operators. An initial public offering is expected from both companies in 2010. The highly competitive bidding for both companies indicates the huge potential that is seen in the market despite the intense competition from six licensed mobile networks. New submarine fibre optic cables set to reach the country in 2009 will introduce competition to the current monopoly provider of international fibre bandwidth and support the ongoing convergence of technologies and services.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Key statistics
  
• 3. Telecommunications market
  
  • 3.1 Overview of Ghana’s telecom market
    
• 4. Regulatory environment
  
  • 4.1 Regulatory authority
    
    • 4.1.1 National Communications Authority (NCA)
      
  • 4.2 West African common regulatory framework 2005
    
  • 4.3 New competition framework 2006
    
  • 4.4 Electronic Communications Bill
    
  • 4.5 Electronic Transaction Bill
    
  • 4.6 Universal service
    
    • 4.6.1 The eCARE project
      
  • 4.7 Telecom sector liberalisation
    
  • 4.8 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
    
  • 4.9 Fixed-line licence conditions
    
• 5. Fixed network operators in Ghana
  
  • 5.1 Ghana Telecom (Vodafone)
    
    • 5.1.1 First privatisation 1997-2007
      
    • 5.1.2 The Telenor period, 2003 - 2005
      
    • 5.1.3 Second privatisation 2008
      
    • 5.1.4 Services
      
    • 5.1.5 Tariffs
      
    • 5.1.6 Network infrastructure
      
    • 5.1.7 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
      
    • 5.1.8 National fibre backbone
      
  • 5.2 Western Telesystems Ghana Ltd (Westel, Zain)
    
    • 5.2.1 Nationalisation 2006
      
    • 5.2.2 Re-privatisation 2007
      
  • 5.3 Capital Telecom Ltd (defunct)
    
• 6. Telecommunications infrastructure
  
  • 6.1 Public payphones
    
  • 6.2 International infrastructure
    
  • 6.3 Submarine cables
    
    • 6.3.1 SAT-3/WASC
      
    • 6.3.2 Other projects
      
• 7. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Country statistics – 2010
• Table 2 – Fixed-line network statistics – 2010
• Table 3 – Internet provider statistics – 2010
• Table 4 – Internet user statistics – 2010
• Table 5 – Mobile statistics – 2010
• Table 6 – National telecommunications authority
• Table 7 – Fixed-lines in service and teledensity – 1995; 1997; 1999 - 2010