Ghana's telecom industry is poised to enjoy some exciting times following the entry of some big industry players into the country's telecom sector. The world's biggest mobile phone company, Vodafone of UK, last week reached a US$900 million deal with the Ghanaian government to acquire 70 percent of Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited (Ghana Telecom) in yet another major telecom transaction trailing last month's offer of the country's sixth mobile licence to Nigeria's second national operator, Globacom Limited. As companies make a bullish run for the Ghanaian economy with the acquisition by wholly-owned subsidiary, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., the UK operator makes a strategic entry into Ghana on the platform of the country's leading fixed line service provider, Ghana Telecom, which also owns the number three mobile operator, One Touch, introduced in 2000. It also reached a deal with the Ghanaian government, which retains the remaining 30 percent of Ghana Telecom, to have the nation's optical fibre network transferred to the latter. The deal, which is however expected to be concluded by the end of the third quarter of the year when it goes through Parliament, is raising some eyebrows from the opposition who are calling on government to put an end to the negotiations because they think it is too confidential. After declaring the sum too small and the deal too private, the minority said it hopes to sway the government away from ultimately securing the transaction, asking it to open up the bidding process to more and potentially higher bidders whilst improving transparency, the party's spokesman on Communications, Haruna Iddrissu, said at a news conference. Globacom has also made a bid for Ghana Telecom's stakes. It eventually settled for the US$50.1 million licence sold to its wholly owned subsidiary, Glo mobile Ghana Limited, to become the sixth mobile operator. There were also undisclosed bids from other firms. But for the UK operator, the deal is not only about telecoms; it cites recent discovery of oil fields in Ghana's territory as some of the strategic rationale for its planned foray to ensure "exposure to the attractive and growing Ghanaian telecommunications market." According to the operator, it sees potentials in low mobile telephony penetration in the market where just 2.7 million lines were added last year to an estimated 24 million population - of which more than 50 percent are under the age of 25. Vodafone also sees major turnaround potentials in Ghana Telecom with its majority control of the leading fixed-line operator which recorded 379,000 subscribers at the end of first quarter of 2008. Telecom owns the number three mobile network accounting for about 17 percent market share and 1.4 million subscribers at the end of first quarter of 2008. Within the same period, it recorded 15,000 broadband lines Vodafone's Chief Executive, Arun Sarin, said that the company expects GT to invest more than US$500 million in its operations over the next five years to restore and expand network coverage, and complete and integrate the national fibre optic backbone. At the same time, newly licenced mobile operator, Globacom, has set aside US$2 billion to finance its network rollout strategy in Ghana over a five-year period while Celtel Telecom, now Zain, which acquired Ghana's second-largest fixed network operator, Westel, for US$123 million last year, has appointed ex-GT Onetouch CEO, Philip Sowah, as its Country Manager to guide the mobile network roll-out of the company, expected to begin this year. Regrettably, in October last year, the national telecom regulator, National Communication Authority (NCA), placed an embargo of the sale of MTN and Onetouch Sim Cards until their networks were appropriately dimensioned to take on additional subscribers. The move, the NCA explained, was necessary - in the face of worsening quality of services - to monitor and evaluate the performance of the country's telecom service providers in a bid to improve it, following a wave of complaints from users. The situation has not changed much and consumers of mobile phone services are still craving new operators to offer better services and diversity of product as well as service offerings at competitive and affordable prices. However, some telecom analysts have continually predicted that the country's telecom sector will not favour a new entrant into the mobile phone service sector as the industry has matured and is nearing a saturation point, which will make it difficult for a new operator to break-even. To complicate matters for the potential operator, the usual consumer fears about losing ones contact numbers after switching operators still hangs around their necks, which the new operator has to battle if it is to win over subscribers from other networks. And the NCA is also not helping subscribers case for better services as the Authority has failed to introduce the much-talked about number portability facility which enables customers to change service providers when they are not satisfied with their level of service whilst retaining their existing telephone number. There are widespread speculations in telecom circles, and even among subscribers, that the NCA is being influenced by some of the operators to halt the number portability system until they have improved on their quality of service in an anticipation of the stiffer competition that comes along with the roll-out of such a facility - an allegation the regulatory body has denied severally. Source: B&FT