Audio Attachment
Listen the Communication Minister in the attached audio
Communication Minister, Haruna Iddrisu has served notice that there will be no turning back on the implementation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in the Ghanaian telecoms pace to guarantee freedom of choice for mobile phone subscribers.
The system empowers subscribers to switch from one network to another while maintaining their phone numbers and network codes, usually in protest against poor quality service.
Haruna Iddrisu who was speaking Monday at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra during a colourful outdooring of airtel (previously Zain), by Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel, explained the system will serve as punishment for non-performing operators who may not be delivering on their minimum quality of service standard.
While welcoming airtel into Ghana and commending their operations and commitments, Haruna said Ghana boasts of one of the most enabling legal and regulatory regimes that encourage competition and described the entry of airtel into Ghana as an encouraging development.
He said the MNP rollout in Ghana early next year, will at worst serve as a birthday gift from President Mills to Ghanaians to assure consumers of choice.
“We have come very far and we have requested the national Communications Authority to decentralize its operations in order that they can show presence in other parts of the country. Indeed I am not particularly happy that mobile broadband has come to save the situation but nonetheless broadband and bandwidth capacity in Ghana is still not the best. But for the reliability and immediacy of mobile broadband internet penetration is beginning to soar in Ghana. I expect that with the entry of airtel into Ghana, we will see an effective result in terms of high-speed, multimedia services so that the Ghanaian people can even watch television via their handsets. I note with particular satisfaction and encouragement that indeed in terms of access to rural telephony, airtel has set the example somewhere and Ghanaian rural subscribers can be sure that sooner than later they would be able to access affordable telephony with the entry of airtel into our market.”
Haruna also announced a corporate social responsibility commitment by airtel to support the University of Cape Coast Medical School with the construction of lecture theatres, a diagnostic centre and a modern auditorium to facilitate the immediate take-off of the medical school.
The Communication Minister lauded airtel for the initiative and assured the company that Ghana remains a very safe and secure investment destination and appealed to telecoms operators in the country to cooperate with the government in its attempt to implement the International Gateway Verification Project.
He said the project has caused some ambivalence and protests in some quarters over privacy issues, however the government, he said, has a responsibility to eliminate fraud associated with the termination of international calls and enhance government revenue. He assured that the government had no intention whatsoever to encroach on the communication of anybody.
airtel is promising to revolutionize mobile telecommunication in Ghana with the most cost effective and affordable products and services which will also offer clients real freedom to choose.
Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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