5G service goes live Nov. 1 — Exciting times for SMEs beckons

Exciting times await businesses as Ghana’s Fifth Generation (5G) technology is ready to go live on November 1.

The wireless technology will offer users a higher internet speed, higher upload and download speed, with more consistent connections and improved capacity. 

The 5G network will run on the same radio frequencies as the existing ones (3G, 4G and 4G LTE networks), which formerly compared to 4G technology. 

The Communication and Digitalisation Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said that all necessary structures had been put in place for the service to be launched. 

The aim is to deliver affordable and high-speed mobile broadband services to users nationwide. 

“5G service is expected to benefit Ghanaians in several ways, such as faster data speeds, lower latency, and increased connectivity,” she said.

The introduction of the 5G service will enable Ghanaians to access digital services, including healthcare, education, and financial services, more efficiently and effectively.

Licence

The government issued the 5G service licence to Next Gen InfraCo, a new shared infrastructure company, which is co-promoted by the government and seven other industries. 

The partners for the service as indicated by the government are Ascend Digital, K-NET, Radisys, Nokia, Tech Mahindra, AT Ghana, and Telecel Ghana. 

However, industry giant, MTN Ghana, is not a part of the consortium, raising doubts about how successful the launch will be in the absence of a major player.

Exciting times

Meanwhile, technology analyst, Maximus Amertogoh, has said the launch of the 5G service is exciting news for industry players because it will be an upgrade of internet connectivity.

This means high speeds and bandwidth for the telcos to deploy missions on the network.

Mr Ametorgoh, in an interview with Graphic Business, said the 5G service was going to provide faster, robust and resilient connectivity and resolve challenging enterprise issues regarding internet connectivity, a major concern for businesses.   

“Businesses stand a great chance of benefiting from the nouvelle service, especially the remote ones because it doesn’t have the usual connections that ordinary people will use,” he noted. 

Regarding the disappointing performance of 4G services in the country, Mr Ametorgoh said ideally, it would be advisable for the government, through the sector ministry, to enhance the existing 4G networks, ensuring that the service was strengthened to solve industry challenges rather than rushing to roll out a new one. 

He said the infrastructure had been built in partnership with the telcos and other service providers and that had made its accessibility easier.

“Business entities that want to deploy a service using 5G have to pay a licence fee before the service is deployed instantly to all coverage areas they provide services to. 

The individual business does not need to build cell site service as and when it has investment or the means to do so,” he noted. 

On the absence of MTN as part of the consortium, Mr Ametorgoh indicated that the government engaged all telcos and MTN was part. 

He said MTN had its concerns regarding the service that needed to be addressed and, therefore, it would not be prudent to say categorically that the company had disassociated itself from the service. 

The analyst, who is also an industry player, said the focus of the service should be on its reliability, affordability and availability, which would benefit the end user and the investor, as well as the telco service providers.