By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Ghana awarded 5G spectrum and a license to Telecel Group and MTN Group after the government ended the exclusive rights held by Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC). NGIC, had partnered with Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd.
The spectrum licences will have a duration of 15 years.
Details of the spectrum included in the notice of award are set out below:
| Band | Total Lots
Available |
Lots in the Notice of Award | Bandwidth | Licence Fee |
| 700 MHz | 3 | 2 lots (2 * 20 MHz) | 2 x 20 MHz | USD100.9 million |
| 3 GHz | 3 | 3 lots (3 * 50 MHz) | 1 x 150 MHz | USD101.1 million |
The companies were among the bidders for the license after Ghana revoked the exclusive concession granted to Next Gen Infraco ahead of its scheduled expiry in 2034 because of rollout delays. Radisys Corporation a unit of Reliance, had been selected to provide the network infrastructure.
As of March, just 49 5G sites were operational, well short of the government’s target of 1,200 by 2027.
The license will allow Telecel to carry more data traffic, improve service quality and roll out faster broadband products as demand for video streaming, cloud services and digital financial products increase across a continent with the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population.
The National Communications Authority awarded MTN Ghana spectrum on the 700 megahertz and 3 gigahertz bands for 5G and mobile-broadband services.
It obtained two of the three lots available in the 700-megahertz band and all three lots in the 3-gigahertz spectrum, with the licenses costing about $100 million each, the company said in a statement to the bourse in Accra, the capital.