MTN Ghana says it is ready to play its part in bringing an end to the damaging phenomena of fibre cuts in the telecommunication industry.
“On the issue of fibre cuts, we have seen an increase in the country and about 80 percent of the cuts are due to road construction works. The drastic rise is a clear indication that something needs to be done as soon as possible. We would be grateful if SSNIT would add its voice to this fight.
Because apart for affecting individual customers and businesses the government also loses. When we did a back of the envelope calculation we realized that if we had realized that revenue we lost due to the cuts government would have received GHS17.4 million in taxes from that revenue,” the Corporate Service Executive of MTN Ghana Sam Koranteng said.
Mr. Koranteng indicated that one fibre cut costs the company over GHS6,000 to fix. He added that, from January 2019 to April 2019, the company experienced 489 cuts which have been affecting the company badly.
“From January this year to the end of April, we suffered up to 489 cuts across the country. Out of this figure, 150 were in the Ashanti region which accounts for a very high number,” he said
Losses from fibre cuts continue to mount
According to MTN, it has been losing millions in recent months due to persistent fibre cuts. According to them, they lost GHS39 million as a result of fibre cuts suffered between October 2018 and February 2019.
Fibre technology helps to improve the quality of service by network providers. The fibre cables are fixed in the ground to help ensure strong network connectivity in areas they have been fixed, but fibre cuts result in low quality of service.
According to MTN, activities of road contractors, illegal mining activities among others lead to cuts which affect their network adversely.
He said: “when you look at the benefits government would have had out of it if we had realized that revenue, the tax component of that- that is an approximation of about 17. 5 million Ghana Cedis so one fiber cut isn’t a revenue loss to MTN. It is a revenue loss to the state as well as all other businesses who use our network – our connectivity to do their business.”
“So you can imagine if we are able to do a survey of all businesses and all people who have experienced revenue loss as a result of this fiber cut, the figure will be much much bigger. If the government had realized this revenue, they would have put it to national development,” he added.
MTN said it is collaborating with the Roads and Highways Ministry to arrange with contractors to help avoid the phenomenon of rampant cuts.