Telecom giant MTN will begin rolling out its 4G service by the middle of 2016.
MTN will join three other companies Surfline, Blu Telecoms, and Busy Ghana who are already rolling 4 G services.
MTN in early December, 2015 won the bid for one frequency spectrum lot in the 800 MHz Band for mobile services.
Prior to the auction the ICT Chamber had called on the National Communications Authority to only allow Ghanaian companies to auction for the license.
The Chamber had argued that the move, if carried out by the industry regulator, would cause members of the chamber to lose more than the US$200 million they had so far invested in their businesses, out of which nothing had yet been recouped as return on investment.
Communications Minister, Dr. Omane Boamah, responding to the ICT Chamber’s demands said though ‘government will support Ghanaian companies, it will not go to the extent of cheating Ghanaians’.
MTN was charged $67.5million by the regulator of the industry the National Communications Authority (NCA) for the license.
According to the CEO of MTN Ghana Ebenezer Asante, the company in January 2016 completed the payment of the license.
Ebenezer Asante tells Citi Business News MTN has already begun tests runs for the successful commercial roll out of the license.
‘As I promised it should take off by the middle of the year’.
Citi Business News has gathered development status operational sites about 69 of them are already up.
There are over 20 of such sites in Accra while others are in Kumasi among others.
Meanwhile another lot of 2 x 10 MHz in the 800 MHz Band is however still available and the NCA is expected to in due course take a decision on that unallocated block.
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By: Vivian Kai Lokko/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
