The Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, says the government is putting in place measures to make calls and data services on rural telephony networks cheaper by the end of the first quarter of 2027.

He said the Ministry was engaging the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) as well as mobile network operators to review the current charging arrangements and ensure that subscribers using rural telephony sites could benefit from their existing voice and data bundles.

The Minister disclosed this on Friday, September 4, when he toured some rural telephony sites in the Akwapim South District and an ongoing cell site at the Koforidua lorry terminal in the Eastern Region.

Areas visited included Dumpong, Nkumkrom, Nsakye and Obosono, as part of a nationwide assessment of telecommunications infrastructure to identify areas requiring urgent intervention.

Mr George said, “We have rural telephony largely in our rural communities and when you look at those communities, the economic ability is not like that of the urban area, but call and data on the rural telephony is more expensive than the urban area. It makes no sense to me.”

The Minister explained that under the current arrangement, customers with existing voice or data bundles could be charged directly when they connected to a rural telephony site, rather than using their purchased bundles.

He said a policy directive had consequently been issued to reverse the arrangement, with the NCA working with telecommunications operators on the technical integration required to implement the change.

“So we've given a directive, I've given a policy directive to reverse that. The NCA is working with the telecom players to ensure that the necessary technical integrations are done,” he said.

The Minister also announced plans to upgrade rural telephony sites to support at least 4G technology, noting that it was no longer appropriate to provide communities with predominantly 2G and 3G services when the world was advancing towards 5G and beyond.

“We must give them at the very least 4G,” he said, adding that government would have to make a deliberate investment in telecommunications infrastructure just as it invested in roads and hospitals.

On network expansion, Mr George said mobile network operators were currently undertaking one of the largest increases in cell-site infrastructure in the country in the past decade.

He said MTN was deploying 800 sites, while Telecel was expected to deploy about 350, with nearly 180 of the MTN sites already completed.

The government expected about 400 of the 800 MTN sites to be completed by the end of the year, with all expected to be operational by the first or second quarter of 2027.

Mr George said the expansion, together with the ongoing 5G spectrum auction, was expected to ease network congestion and improve customer experience nationwide.

He also disclosed that about GH¢30 million had been allocated to rural telephony under the GIFEC budget this year, equivalent to nearly US$3 million, with US$400,000 earmarked for immediate remedial works on 20 sites.

He said approximately 1,400 rural telephony sites were currently carrying traffic, while another 300 completed sites were awaiting connection to donor sites.

He appealed to communities to support the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure to enable citizens to benefit from improved connectivity.

Meanwhile, residents of Nkumkrom appealed to the government to fast-track the construction of the telephony site in the community to improve mobile service in the area.

The project has been delayed due to what the Minister said was the unavailability of a line site to enable connections to already existing masts within the catchment area.

Materials for the construction of the mast have already been shipped to the community.

A resident of the community, Michael Osei, told the Ghana News Agency that the delay in setting up the mast was impacting negatively on their lives, urging the government to speed up the process.

The Minister was accompanied on the tour by Dr Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, Director-General of the NCA; Mr Rashid Tanko Computer, Chief Executive Officer of GIFEC; Mrs Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey, Eastern Regional Minister; and engineers from the Ministry, NCA and Mobile Network Operators.