[Joy Online] The National Communications Authority (NCA) has said it would soon license separate private companies to install telecom infrastructure purposely for co-location. This, it said, was to create some sanity in the mounting of telecom masts across the country and also free the hands of the operators to concentrate on providing quality service.
Mr Joshua Peprah, Director of Regulatory and Administration at the NCA, announced this at a day’s workshop on Wednesday for stakeholders in the communication industry, organised by the Environmental Protection Agency to address issues of telecom mast erection vis-a-vis public perceptions and complaints about their health, safety and environmental implications.
He noted that by the end of the first quarter of this year, there were about 3,000 telecom masts across the country, comprising 1,652 for MTN, 699 for TIGO, 378 for Vodafone, 250 for Zain and 112 for Kasapa.
Some of the operators told GNA recently that they had agreed on 100s of cell sites for co-location to enable them to serve respective subscribers using each other’s infrastructure, but they have not realised even one of those agreements.
Mr Peprah noted that, when the individual operators installed their infrastructure years ago, they did not anticipate the need for co-location in the future so it had become difficult for them to share their existing infrastructure.
“We trust that the third party infrastructure providers that we will license in the near future will install adequate infrastructure at strategic points across the country to enable operators to share quality service,” he said.
Mr Peprah noted that it was an irony for the public to expect quality service from the operators and yet complain about telecom base stations in their neighbourhoods.
“The public needs to understand that without the telecom masts, the service operators cannot provide the quality service expected of them.”
NCA moves on telecom co-location
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