Some players in the telecom industry are accusing the National Communications Authority (NCA) and policy makers of presiding over an unfair and a default telecommunications industry.
[contextly_sidebar id=”GWfEfUB8Vfaj5vZj84jgrO31c98Cwlda”]Their concerns come days after Scancom Limited (MTN) emerged winner in the auction process for one of the frequency spectrum lot in the 800 MHz Band for mobile services.
MTN which is the largest mobile network operator in the country, with about 15million subscribers, secured one of the 2x10MHz spectra blocks in the 800MHz spectrum auctioned by the NCA.
The auction came with a lot of opposition including the ICT Chamber which urged the NCA to only allow Ghanaian companies to bid for the license.
The External Affairs Director for Vodafone Ghana, Gayheart Mensah in an interview with Citi Business News, blamed the inability of the other mobile telecom operators to be part of the 800 MHz Band auction to their inability to make profit as well as the structure of the telecom sector.
“It is no surprise that when it came to the issue of the 800 spectrum it was only MTN that had the muscle to bid for it and the fact that Vodafone, Airtel, Tigo could not take part should send a signal to the regulators of the telecom industry that there is something fundamentally wrong with the structure of the industry in Ghana. Of all the Telcos, it is only MTN that is making profits and it is because of the size advantage.” Gayheart Mensah noted.
He added, “We shouldn’t forget that if the rest are also making profits, it all contributes to the taxable revenues and incomes of the companies and feeds into the total revenues that the government gets to the extent that they are not making profits, it detracts from the pool of resources and revenues from which government can apply taxes.”
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By: Norvan Acquah-Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana