[ 2017-05-10 ]

Telcos ditch 4G spectrum over high cost
Citi Business News has gathered that the second 4G
spectrum being sold by government may never be
acquired by the telecom operators in the country.

Discussions with operators in the telecom industry
reveal that most of them will shy away from
acquiring the license because of its high cost.

The telecom operators argue that the price being
offered by government in acquiring a 4G license is
extremely high and not in the best interest of
their companies taking their financial strength
into consideration.

In an exclusive interview with Head of Business
desk at Citi FM Vivian Kai Lokko, the Chief
Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Yolanda Cuba
said her outfit will launch into 4G operations
when they believe the price offered for it will
benefit the company as well as consumers.

“I think at some point in time we will roll out
4G; the question around is whether the price at
which the available slot is being offered is
actually market related and whether it is a fair
price to pay at this point in time,” Yolanda
Cuba said.

She added, “We do not believe this is what the
situation is because even when MTN paid for the
slot they said it was not at a market related
price.”
MTN Ghana which acquired the first 4G license did
so at a price of 67.5 million dollars, a figure
that was exceedingly high for the other bidders to
compete with.

MTN, together with three other companies;
Surfline, Goldkey and Migson communications all
submitted applications for the spectrum but only
MTN was able to cough up the floor price for the
spectrum which was 67.5 million dollars.

Meanwhile touching on the reason for slow data
penetration in the country, Yolanda Cuba said the
kind of mobile phones used by a majority of the
population accounts largely for the slow pace of
data penetration.

“The first thing that data penetration is
 dependent on is how pervasive your network is ,
the second thing is the kind of mobile phones
people have, a lot of people still use 2 and 3
mobile phone so even while there may be 4G in the
system people are not getting the full
experience”.

Source - citibsinessnews.com

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