The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has backed the government’s plan to upgrade rural telephony infrastructure to a minimum of 4G but is urging authorities to prioritise communities that remain without connectivity under the existing programme.

The party said the move towards faster and more reliable connectivity was a legitimate and necessary objective, particularly as Ghana expands digital services across the country.

It noted that the rural telephony infrastructure deployed under the previous administration was designed to accommodate future upgrades, meaning the transition to 4G could be pursued as part of a longer-term development programme.

However, the NPP argued that the government’s immediate priority should be to complete infrastructure that has already been constructed and connect equipment that has already been procured.

It said prioritising a technology upgrade before addressing basic connectivity could leave communities that currently have no service waiting even longer for access.

“A community that has no service at all gains nothing from a decision about whether it should eventually receive 3G or 4G,” the party stated.

It added that the immediate obligation was:

“to connect the sites that have already been built and paid for, to deploy the equipment already in stock, and to restore service where it has lapsed.”

NPP cautions against widening digital divide

The party warned that an upgrade programme that runs ahead of the completion of existing rural telephony projects could worsen inequalities in access to telecommunications services.

“An upgrade programme that runs ahead of completion of the existing programme risks leaving the citizens with the weakest coverage waiting longest,” it said.

The NPP is therefore calling on the government to publish details of the sequencing, financing and costing of the proposed 4G upgrade.

It also wants the government to demonstrate that the upgrade programme will not delay the completion of outstanding rural connectivity projects.

The party maintained that expanding the network to 4G should complement, rather than come at the expense of, efforts to provide basic connectivity to communities that are still without service.