MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita, has told President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that the company has a keen interest in participating in any future spectrum auction for 5G infrastructure in Ghana.
According to him, 5G infrastructure will facilitate faster and more efficient internet services in Ghana and MTN has been waiting for the license to bring that superior service to Ghanaians.
He made the remark when he led a three-member high level delegation from the MTN Group to pay a courtesy call on President Nana Akufo-Addo at his hotel in New York in the United States of America, where the President is attending the 77th United Nations General Assembly meeting.
The MTN delegation included Ebenezer Asante, Senior Vice-President of MTN in charge of Markets and Nompilo Morafo, Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer.
MTN Ghana had to suspend a pilot of its 5G services this year because the industry regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA) refused to grant them the license to do so, due to MTN’s significant market power (SMP) status.
MTN Ghana had initially promised to roll out 5G services in March this year, the CEO, Selorm Adadevoh told journalists recently that he cannot give any more assurances because discussions are still ongoing with the regulator.
MTN readies 1,322 sites for 5G
Last year, MTN Ghana modernized at least 1,322 sites in readiness for the launch of commercial 5G services.
The company also upgraded its packet core capacity to 525 gigabits per second, which is designed to power its converged voice and data services on 4G LTE and also effectively deploy and operate one packet network for 2G, 3G and a wide range of other technologies.
5G Packet Core also known as 5G Core (5GC) is the heart of a 5G mobile network, and it handles a wide variety of essential functions in the mobile network, such as connectivity and mobility management, authentication and authorization, subscriber data management and policy management, among other things.
Already, MTN had over that past 25 years mounted 4,100 sites and over 400 rural telephony sites, providing 98% 2G/3G coverage and 73% 4G coverage across the country.
MTN has also built an additional 120 new 2G/3G sites and 607 new 4G sites this year alone.
Also Read: MTN Ghana readies 1,322 sites for 5G
Also Read: MTN Ghana CEO hints of 5G launch next year
