Communication Min: Kan-Dapaah

The flagship of the industry in Ghana is Ghana Telecom (GT). It predates all other institutions in the sector by several decades, having been established during the colonial era first as a twin to the Post Office (Department of Post and Telecommunication) and later on its own as it is known today. This Ghanaian owned asset served its public well in the past and continues to do so today even as contemporary network arrangements threaten its existence.

Recently, the National Communication Authority (NCA) the regulator of the sector took full page advertisements in the state-owned Daily Graphic to "answer" press comments that highlighted some of GT's problems. ADM has over the months done stories and comments bringing to public attention some of the peculiar problems of GT.

The NCA adverts came out more or less as condemnations against GT. Not unexpectedly, the NCA's adverts were seized upon by opponents of the government as confirmation of a failed government policy at GT. It would be recalled that after the management agreement of Telecom Malaysia at GT went sour, the NPP administration entered into a new agreement with Telenor, the Norwegian telecom giant. Telenor has been at GT these past three years.

Yesterday, Mr. Oystein Bjorge, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Telecom (GT) met the press to present the company's happy and not so happy story.

He stated that the company has since 2003; made tremendous achievements in the areas of technical quality, network upgrade and expansion, reconfiguration of the network and the extension of GSM coverage.

He told the press that before Telenor Management Partners (TMP) took over the management of the company, it was very difficult to terminate long distance calls. This he said has improved considerably in a dramatic way because of the expansion of the trunk routes and the reconfiguration of the network.

He disclosed that the management of GT established a Fraud Management Unit with a modern fraud management system, which became operational in February 2004 to reduce the loss of revenue to the company.

He said GT was in dire financial straits with the company close to bankruptcy, when TMP took over in February 2003. The management realized the need for a Network Operation Centre as a strategic, centralized operations and maintenance centre.

To show commitment to and belief in superior customer satisfaction in fixed network services, measures were put in place to please GT's increasing and varied customer base. This, he said, "has been done by strengthening and adding value to existing products as well as initiating new products."

He cited some of the new products as Broadband4U, Dial-Up, Prepaid Telephony, ONE4All, among others. The CEO said the superior service provided by ONEtouch has earned it the accolade of being the "most stress-free network in town."

On marketing, he said customer service points in the various GT exchanges have been designated as Care4U Centres to cater for GT's increased customer base. Before 2003, the only forms of advertising GT carried were public notice on disruption of telecom services in affected areas or seasonal bonanza sales of telephone lines but "2003 marked a new chapter in advertising for the company."

On promotions, Mr. Bjorge said the Fixed Network Service and ONEtouch Business Units have together run close to fifteen major promotions between 2004 and 2005 to win over potential customers, boost sales and reward loyal customers.

GT, the CEO announced, has undergone major human resource development in terms of training, staffing, and change. He stated that by the end of 2005, the Ghana Telecom Training College would gain accreditation to run as a university.

GT has done very well in terms of its social responsibility, said the CEO, by providing rural telephony, education projects and sponsoring sports.

"A track record of Telenor's Management of GT shows an endless list of achievements both tangible and intangible."

Mr. Bjorge stated that although GT is poised to deliver on its mandate of using modern technology, it still has to battle out certain challenges that are impeding its progress.

He cited the issue of tariff administration and explained that the percentage add-on approach of fixing rates and tariff and the arbitrary methods used by the regulatory body were relevant in the past but not today. "It is about time Ghana moved away from the tradition of treating utilities as a social service", he suggested.

He said interconnection with other operators was another challenge that GT is faced with and explained that payment in respect of interconnection in other parts of the world is so balanced that net payments shift from one operator to another.

However, in the case of GT, net payments regularly go from GT to other operators. This he said was because the fixed to mobile charges are so low that it is very attractive to use fixed lines to call mobile numbers and very expensive to use mobile numbers to call fixed lines.

Mr. Bjorge stated that approximately 90% of "Cost of Goods Sold" is interconnect fee payable to other operators. For the last three years GT has paid interconnect fees to other mobile operators in excess of $110 million.

He revealed that in 2005 alone the amount paid to one operator was more than US$48 million, vat inclusive, for which reason, "there is the need to change the interconnection regime."