Contrary to claims by critics of the sale of 70 per cent shares of Ghana Telecom (GT) to Vodafone International BV, that the buyer has no experience in fixed-line voice operations, documents available to the Ghana News Agency prove otherwise. A facts sheet obtained from the Vodafone Group in the United Kingdom states categorically that “Vodafone wholly-owns fixed-line (voice and broadband) services in Germany, Italy, Spain, Egypt and New Zealand”. It said Vodafone owned and managed fixed-line voice and data networks in Germany under the brand Arcor, in Italy and Spain under the brand name Tele2, in Egypt under the Vodafone brand and in New Zealand, iHug. But for Egypt where Vodafone’s share in the fixed line voice service is 54.1 per cent, it owns 100 per cent in all the other countries where it has fixed line voice services. Since news of the sale of 70 per cent stake in GT to Vodafone at US$900 million went public, it has raised many questions, with one of the claims being that Vodafone operates only mobile telephony services and has no experience in fixed-line voice operations. Dr Nii Moi Thompson, an economist and leading member of the Convention People’s Party who has been at the forefront of the criticism of the Vodafone deal, has described Vodafone’s claims of experience in fixed line operations as completely false. He said if government did due diligence on the those claims it would find that in New Zealand, for example, Vodafone was just a client to an operator of the fixed line voice service and not Vodafone itself. One other critic, Dr. Peter Quartey, an economist and Deputy Director of University of Ghana Centre for Migrations Studies, told the GNA that he was once resident in the UK and knew that Vodafone had no fixed-line services and that Vodafone services were also very expensive. According to the fact sheet, however, in addition to its fixed line services, Vodafone also has over 10 million fixed-broadband customers across 13 countries, served through both Vodafone-owned fibre networks and through wholesale agreements with other providers. Touching on the GT deal, the facts sheet stated that beyond the payment of US$900 million to the government of Ghana, Vodafone would also invest an additional US$500 million into renewing GT’s operations over the next five years. It noted that Vodafone acknowledged the strong competition that GT faced from four foreign-owned telecom operators active in the Ghanaian market (MTN, TIGO, Kasapa, ZAIN and GLO), saying that Vodafone intended to develop GT as a world class company addressing its customers’ total communications needs, including mobile, fixed, broadband and fibre. The fact sheet said in recognition of the challenges facing GT, the US$500 million invested would be used to bring a suite of Vodafone products and services to GT and additional required investment would be made so as to regain market share. “We will leverage Vodafone’s global scale and buying power to bring latest technology to Ghana, complete and integrate the national fibre optic network – bringing high-speed broadband and fixed-line services to the people of Ghana and supporting governmental effort to develop ICT in schools,” it said. It said coverage and quality of the mobile network would also be expanded across the country, including widening the EDGE network across major urban areas in the short term and bringing 3G to Ghana within 2009. Investment would be made in staff training, equipment and resources to benefit employees and customers. Source:GNA