The Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Rev Ing. Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, says Ghana’s voice service penetration has risen to over 127 per cent as the Authority marks 30 years of operation.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show as part of activities to celebrate “NCA@30: Celebrating 30 Years of Transformative Communications”, he said the growth in the sector has been massive.

He explained that when the NCA was established in 1996, telephony penetration was below one per cent.

“NCA has facilitated growth. We were under 1% telephony penetration when NCA was created. Today, for voice services, our penetration is over 127%,” he said.

According to him, the figure means Ghana now has more mobile phone connections than its total population.

“It means that we have more telephony connections than the population of Ghana,” he stated.

Rev Fianko said the change in internet access has been just as significant.

He recalled that in 1996, only a few companies had internet connections, and many of those relied on dial-up services.

“You can click, and in today’s terms, you can go and eat and come,” he said, describing how slow internet access used to be.

At the time, he noted, users could only send basic text-based messages. Today, he said, the situation is very different.

“Internet penetration has grown. The speeds of communication services have grown. We can push video in a matter of seconds,” he explained.

He added that internet penetration is now above 80 per cent, a level he described as unimaginable three decades ago.

The Director General also highlighted the successful transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting as one of the Authority’s key achievements.

“We have completed the transition from analogue television broadcasting to digital, enabling a lot more stations to be available,” he said.

He said that broadcasting has played an important role in strengthening Ghana’s democracy.

“People underestimate what broadcasting has done for this country and for our democracy,” he said.

On the rollout of 5G technology, Rev Fianko disclosed that a licence was issued in 2024 for a wholesale provider of 5G services.

He said installation has been completed in Accra, and telecommunications companies are preparing to connect to the service.

“At the last check, they have completed their installation at least in the city of Accra and are preparing for the telcos to connect to the service and make it available,” he said.

He added that further policy decisions have been taken to speed up the process and expressed confidence that commercial 5G services will begin before the end of the year.

“I would say that before the end of this year, we would have commercial 5G services available in Ghana,” he said.