Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ... - ITU

1. Introduction
1.1 The challenge
Ghana led the way in telecommunications liberalisation and deregulation in Africa when it privatised Ghana
Telecom (GT) in 1996. Since then, the telecommunication sector in Ghana has experienced significant
growth in the dominant mobile sector with 15 per cent growth in 2010 and 21.2 million mobile
subscriptions 69 at the end of 2011. This growth is likely to continue as coverage is extended to reach more
geographical areas and user adoption continues to increase. The target defined by the MoC was to provide
universal access to all communities and population groups in Ghana to telephone, Internet, and multimedia
services by the year 2010 70 . This target has still to be reached and is helping to drive further growth in
telecommunication services.
Service providers are increasingly offering Internet access and e-mail. These services can be piggybacked on
the existing GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network using GPRS (General Packet Radio
Service). These additional services provide access to e-mail, instant messenger services, and basic Internet
browsing at rates of up to 40kbit/s 71 which could provide much needed information on education, health,
and adaptation to climate change. More applications could be developed with the introduction of wired and
wireless broadband, which could provide connection rates of up to 14 Mbit/s (mobile) and 100 Mbit/s
(fixed).
Reducing the ICT sector’s GHG emissions, in the face of a booming industry sector growth, is the major
challenge addressed in this report.
1.2 The situation today
With 21.2 million mobile phone subscriptions among a population estimated to be 24.2 million 72 , there is an
estimated take-up rate by subscription of up to 71 per cent of the population. Dual SIM (Subscriber Identity
Module) mobile phones, where one person subscribes to more than one TSP, are very popular for extending
coverage while roaming, which means that the number of separate subscriptions will in practice be
significantly lower than 71 per cent of the population. The breakdown by TSP is given in Table 1 for
December 2011.
Table 1. The breakdown of mobile phone subscriptions in Ghana in December 2011
Telecom service provider Million lines Market share %
SCANCOM (MTN) 10.2 47.35
VODAFONE MOBILE 4.3 19.93
MILLICOM TIGO 3.9 18.28
AIRTEL MOBILE 2.6 12.24
EXPRESSO 0.2 0.87
Total mobile 21.2
Source: National Communications Authority of Ghana.
Examples of coverage maps for mobile TSPs Vodafone Ghana, Scancom 73 , and Airtel Mobile are shown in
Figures 1, 2 and 3.
47