MTN Ghana has commission a third state of the art, high capacity switch and data centre at Legon in Accra, in addition to similar facilities at Sakaman in Accra, and Kaase in the Ashanti Region. General Manager for Network Service at MTN Ghana, Ibrahim Misto said the third one, together with the two others cost the company over US$280 million, adding that it was a necessary investment to improve customer experience on MTN. Mr. Misto said the centre houses the latest IP technology and the superior Blade Cluster Technology, which provides high speed connectivity for greater amount of calls than any other technology does, and also seamlessly hands over traffic from a broken channel to proper ones without calls dropping. He said the data centre also had enough redundant capacity to store large amounts for data for both individual and corporate clients, while the switches also retain a huge capacity and the technology to forestall any issues with congestion on the network. “This centre has a disaster recovery facility – so if something happens to the switch and data centre at Sakaman, this new one would automatically takeover the work load at the centre,” he said. Mr. Misto said MTN had so far invested over US$1.2 billion in Ghana and it was still investing with the sole aim of giving customers the best network, but there had been challenges with fibre cuts, vandalisation of cell sites and other challenges, which interfered with the quality of its network. He said the switch and data centre was one of many strategies and solutions MTN was applying to maintain its position as the operator with the best quality network, in spite of the many challenges. Corporate Services Executive for MTN Ghana, Cynthia Lumor said in spite of the many complaints from telecom operators, underground fibre cuts, diesel theft from cell sites, and power fluctuations among other challenges, continued to face the telcos. She said MTN had now resorted to installing fibre on poles, instead of underground, to prevent cuts during road constructions; but even that, the fibre still gets cut through bush fires and other human activities. “No telco anywhere in the world installs triple fibre at the same spot, but MTN has been doing that to provide backup in case one or two are cut, but there have been instances where road contruction workers have cut all three fibres at a spot and that comes at a high cost to us,” she said. Cynthia Lumor said the telcos are in talks with players in the road sector and other sectors to find a way to protect telecom infrastructure while building roads and or installing other infrastructure, adding that the company had also taken a few people to court to answer for causing damage to MTN infrastructure. She said, while all that was ongoing, the company was not relenting on investing in technologies and solutions to provide the best quality service and to give its customers the best of experience, an example being the newly commissioned switch and data centre. Cynthia Lumor also hinted that MTN had invested some US$100 million into the West African Communication Systems (WACS) submarine fibre optic cable, which had already landed in Ghana, and would go live real soon. The company promised to deploy WACS on commercial basis in Ghana during this second quarter, which would end in weeks; but Cynthia Lumor said the company would soon issue communication on the deployment. Deputy Director of the National Communication Authority (NCA), Albert Enninful said the regulator had created the environment for telcos to thrive, provide quality service to customers, and to support national develop, and on that score, it was pleased with such investments.