Ghana - Telecoms Infrastructure, Operators, Regulations - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

Ghana was one of the first countries in Africa to liberalise and deregulate its telecommunications sector. Following the privatisation of Ghana Telecom in 1996 there was very rapid growth in market competition across the mobile, internet and fixed-line sectors, with a number of new players being licensed to offer services. Ghana Telecom was acquired by the Vodafone Group in 2009 and rebranded as Vodafone Ghana. It is the principal fixed-line provider and also the second largest player in the mobile services sector. The second national operator, Westel, was also re-privatised, in 2007, becoming a member of the Zain Group, one of Africa’s leading mobile operators, before being sold to Bharti Airtel in 2010. The arrival of two submarine fibre optic cables in 2012 and 2013 significantly increased international bandwidth and led to a reduction in the cost of broadband access. These developments, combined with the roll out of national fibre backbone networks by a number of players, are continuing to revolutionise the country’s broadband market and pave the way for the convergence of technologies and services.

Key developments:

Accra Digital Centre is opened; Google builds out 1,200km of metro-net fibre as part of its Project Link program; Eastern Corridor project completed, work starts on Western Corridor; government planning launch of the Ghanasat 1 satellite in 2020; fifth international submarine fibre optic cable launched; Ghana Information Communication Technology Council to be set up to guide the ICT sector; continuing influence of fixed-mobile substitution; report update includes the regulator’s market data to February 2017, telcos’ operating data to Q4 2016, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

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

1. Synopsis
2. Key statistics
3. Country overview
4. Telecommunications market
- 4.1 Historical overview
5. Regulatory environment
- 5.1 Regulatory authority
- 5.2 West African Common Regulatory Framework 2005
- 5.3 New competition framework 2006
- 5.4 Electronic Communications Act
- 5.5 Electronic Transaction Act
- 5.6 Universal service
- 5.7 Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunications (GIFTEL)
  - 5.7.1 The eCARE project
- 5.8 Telecom sector liberalisation
- 5.9 Fixed-line licence conditions
6. Fixed network operators
- 6.1 Vodafone Ghana (formerly Ghana Telecom)
  - 6.1.1 First privatisation 1997-2007
  - 6.1.2 The Telenor period, 2003-2005
  - 6.1.3 Second privatisation 2008
  - 6.1.4 Services
  - 6.1.5 Network infrastructure
  - 6.1.6 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
  - 6.1.7 National fibre backbone
- 6.2 Bharti Airtel (Zain, Westel)
  - 6.2.1 Nationalisation 2006
  - 6.2.2 Re-privatisation 2007
- 6.3 Capital Telecom (defunct)
7. Telecommunications infrastructure
- 7.1 Overview of the national telecom network
- 7.2 Public payphones
- 7.3 Fibre backbone infrastructure
- 7.4 International infrastructure
  - 7.4.1 Submarine fibre optic cables
  - 7.4.2 Satellite services
- 7.5 Data centres
8. Related reports

Table 1 – Country statistics – 2016 (e)
Table 2 – Fixed-line network statistics – 2016
Table 3 – Internet provider statistics – 2017
Table 4 – Internet, broadband and social media user statistics – 2016
Table 5 – Mobile statistics – 2016
Table 6 – National telecommunications authority
Table 7 – Fixed-line and mobile services revenue – 2010 - 2012
Table 8 – Fixed-line subscribers by operator – 2011 – 2017
Table 9 – Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1999 - 2009
Table 10 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2010 - 2018
Table 11 – International bandwidth – 2001 - 2015

Chart 1 - Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2005 - 2018

Related Reports

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Technologies

Broadband Fixed
Companies (Major Players)
Regulations & Government Policies
Strategies & Analyses (Industry & Markets)
Telecoms Infrastructure

Number of pages 28

Status Current

Last updated 4 May 2017
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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