The Ministry of Communication has said it was developing a National Fibre Communication Backbone Infrastructure network to provide open access broadband connectivity nationwide. The project, equivalent to an Information Telecommunication (IT) motorway will serve the remotest parts of Ghana, Professor Mike Oquaye, Minister of Communication, told a meet-the-press series in Accra. He said the Chinese government had provided a concessionary loan of 30 million dollars for the first phase of the project, which was already under construction and expressed the hope that the Chinese would also support the second phase estimated at 70 million dollars. Prof. Oquaye said incorporated in the backbone project was the e-government connectivity solution, which was to ensure that connectivity access to be delivered by the private sector would reach all corners of the country. "The Ministry of Finance has supported our application for the Chinese Government to release funds in good time for this component," he said, adding that the project would open up the country to rapid local and foreign investment in ICT. Prof. Oquaye said it was government's expectation that with the completion of the backbone projects, problems such as low accessibility to telephone facilities, especially in rural areas would be a thing of the past. He was also optimistic that issues of poor quality of service by telecom operators, high bandwidth cost and poor and inadequate telecom infrastructure would all be solved when the fibre backbone project was completed. Prof. Oquaye said whilst the backbone project was underway, the Ministry had also established the Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunications (GIFTEL) to facilitate the extension of communication services through the provision of familiar facilities such as telecom tower service to underserved and areas that had not been served at all. "It is estimated that by the end of the year a total of 44 common telecommunications facilities would have been provided by GIFTEL across the country. "The Common usage of this infrastructure by Telecom Operators to serve the towns and their environs will reduce connectivity cost and correspondingly bring down cost of service provision to consumers in these hitherto underserved areas," he said. Source: GNA