The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has raised concerns over what it describes as delays in deploying approximately 400 rural telephony sites and restoring services at facilities that have become non-operational since the change of government in January 2025.

According to the party’s Policy Co-ordination Committee, equipment for the additional sites was handed over to the current administration, but available information indicates that no new rural telephony site was constructed in 2025.

The NPP said the pace of deployment of the remaining sites also suggests that the programme will not be completed this year.

The party also alleged that a greater proportion of the sites that had already been constructed and activated are now non-operational than was the case at the time of handover.

It challenged the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations to provide evidence if those claims are inaccurate.

“If any of these positions is inaccurate, the Ministry is in the best position to correct the record with data, and we invite it to do so,” the statement said.

The NPP said it supports the government’s ambition to upgrade rural telephony infrastructure to a minimum of 4G but warned that the upgrade should not take precedence over connecting existing sites and restoring services.

“A community that has no service at all gains nothing from a decision about whether it should eventually receive 3G or 4G,” the party argued, insisting that the immediate priority should be to connect sites already built and paid for and deploy equipment already available.

It has therefore demanded that the Ministry and GIFEC publish, within 30 days, the locations and deployment schedules for the remaining sites, including their completion dates.

The party also wants government to provide details of the proposed 4G upgrade, including its financing, costing and sequencing, and demonstrate that the exercise will not delay completion of the outstanding rural telephony programme.

It said rural connectivity should be treated as “national infrastructure with a long horizon” rather than a partisan achievement.