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

Synopsis

Ghana led the way in telecommunications liberalisation and deregulation in Africa when it privatised Ghana Telecom (GT) 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 a year earlier and became a member of the Zain Group, one of Africa’s leading mobile operators which was taken over by Bharti Airtel of India in 2010. The arrival of three new international submarine fibre optic cables between 2010 and 2012 – Glo-1, Main One and WACS – has finally brought competition to the international bandwidth sector previously dominated by GT with its shareholding in the SAT-3/WASC cable. This, in combination with national fibre backbone networks that are being rolled out by various players, is revolutionising the country’s broadband market and paving the way for convergence of technologies and services.

Key developments:

Fourth international submarine fibre optic cable launched;

Fixed-mobile substitution continues.

Companies covered in this report:

Vodafone (Ghana Telecom); Telkom Malaysia; Telenor; Bharti Airtel (Zain/Celtel, Westel); Capital Telecom; Globacom, Main One; VoltaCom; Phase3 Telecom; Suburban Telecom.

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 Bharti Airtel (Zain, Westel)
    • 5.2.1 Nationalisation 2006
    • 5.2.2 Re-privatisation 2007
  • 5.3 Capital Telecom Ltd (defunct)
• 6. Fixed-line statistics
• 7. Telecommunications infrastructure
  • 7.1 Public payphones
  • 7.2 Fibre backbone infrastructure
  • 7.3 International infrastructure
  • 7.4 Submarine fibre optic cables
    • 7.4.1 SAT-3/WASC
    • 7.4.2 Glo-1
    • 7.4.3 Main One
    • 7.4.4 WACS
• 8. Related reports

• Table 1 – Country statistics – 2012
• Table 2 – Fixed-line network statistics – 2012
• Table 3 – Internet provider statistics – 2012
• Table 4 – Internet user statistics – 2012
• Table 5 – Mobile statistics – 2012
• Table 6 – National telecommunications authority
• Table 7 – Vodafone Ghana prepaid fixed-line tariffs – July 2012
• Table 8 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1999 - 2012

• Chart 1 - Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1999 - 2012

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