Network of Communication
Reporters (NCR) has welcomed the new entrant into the local telecoms market,
Surline Communications Limited, operators of the first 4G LTE network in the
country.
In a statement jointly signed by
NCR President Charles BenoniOkine and Head of PR, Samuel Dowuona, the group congratulated
Surfline for its courage in launching a 4G LTE network in Ghana at a time when
4G enabled devices are largely lacking, and existing operators’ revenues are
allegedly dwindling due to competition.
“But it is also refreshing to
note that Surfline comes at a time when there is need for some fresh inject of
quality of experience as subscribers of the services of the existing networks
generally complain of poor quality of service and lower than expected customer
experience,” the statement said.
The group noted that the
superiority of the 4G LTE technology, which promises far better customer
experience than its predecessor, givesSurfline an edge over competition, and
for that matter it would be expected to meet the expectationsof Ghanaians for
better service.
NCR believes in a global village
where Ghanaian students, business people and citizens in general are competing
for the same opportunities with their counterpart overseas, the best of data
technology is key to how effectively Ghanaians could access existing
opportunities.
“We acknowledge that the existing
telcos and ISPs have been very capable partners of business, students and
people of all walks of life in their quest to access opportunities, and content
of all forms for academic, business, and entertainment purposes in a timeous
fashion. But on the back of a 4G LTE network, Surfline would be expected to
deliver even better support for all these groups of persons,” the statement
said.
NCR said it has taken note that
Surfline has deployed 220 cell sites in close proximity to each other across
Accra and Tema, acquired bandwidth from three fibre optics vendor and built a
more than US$100million worth of a network in partnership with some of the best
industry technology partners.
This, NCR believes, should make
the Surfline network robust enough to support and optimize its 4G LTE
technology to the benefit of Ghanaians.
“While we welcome Surfline and
expect that they will deliver on the promise of better customer experience, we
trust that affordability will be its hall mark, particularly at this time when
data services are increasingly becoming affordable across the world,” NCR said.
The statement said, NCR is aware
Surfline and the two other Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licensees have up to
five years to cover 60% of all district capitals the country.
On that score, “we would also
like to urge you to quickly expand to districts in the other regions so the
greater majority of Ghanaians would get to benefit from the superior experience
4G LTE promises.
NCR would also like to urge the
two other Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licensees, Blu Telecommunications and
Goldkey Telecommunications to rollout before the 18 months deadline, which ends
in November 2014, so that Ghanaians would have the benefit of choice.
“We would also like to
congratulate the regulator, National Communications Authority for creating the
environment for more investors have confidence in the telecoms market. But we
would urge that subsequent licensees, if ever, should be limited to coverage
for specific communities in the country instead of making it nationwide and
piling choices in the capital city,” NCR said.
NCR believes that would help
Ghana avoid the situation in other jurisdictions where some players were forces
to fold up because of too much competition and its attendant dwindling revenues
and non-profitability.
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