The National Communications Authority (NCA) has declared that declining service quality is now the single biggest threat to the telecommunications sector, warning service providers that they will be held strictly accountable to their promised remediation plans starting this August.
Speaking at a forum in Accra to mark World Telecom and Information Society Day (WTISD) and the regulatory body’s 30th anniversary, the Director-General of the NCA, Edmund Y Fianko addressed mounting public frustration over poor network connectivity across the country.
Edmund Fianko revealed that the regulatory body has already tightened its quality of service benchmarks and will soon begin publishing network-by-network performance data to give consumers full visibility into compliance levels.
The NCA chief noted that despite Ghana boasting a mobile subscription base of over 43 million across a population of 35 million, representing one of the highest penetration rates in West Africa the gap between connectivity statistics and actual user experience is widening dangerously.
”Across this country, the public is telling us in growing numbers and in increasingly clear terms that the service they are paying for is not a service they are receiving,” the Director-General stated, pointing to persistent dropped calls, slow data speeds, and fading signals outside major urban centers.”
“This is now the most consistent complaint reaching the NCA. It is the most discussed concern in a public conversation about our sector, and it is today the single biggest threat to the trust our industry has spent 30 years building,” the NCA chief added.
Reiterating the regulator’s firm stance, he emphasized, “The service Ghanaians pay for must be the service they receive, and closing the coverage gap in our peri-urban and rural communities is the single most important task before the sector today.”
The NCA disclosed that mobile network operators (MNOs) were summoned earlier this year to defend the underlying drivers of the network deterioration and submit concrete recovery roadmaps.
While the regulator expressed satisfaction that operators have outlined credible plans spanning capacity expansion, fiber relocation, transmission upgrades, and advanced technology rollouts, the focus has now shifted entirely to implementation.
”Our operators are committed to material improvements in customer perceived quality from August onwards,” the Director-General announced. “So the question now is not whether there is a plan. There is a plan. The question is execution.”
Issuing a direct warning to industry players, the head of the authority added: “The authority will monitor delivery against the timelines and milestones you are committed to, and we will hold you accountable for the service quality improvements you have promised the consumer. We are working with you, but we will also be measuring you.”
Despite the pressure on telecom firms, the NCA argued that fixing network quality requires an urgent national effort to protect critical infrastructure. The authority strongly condemned the frequent disruptions caused by road construction, community resistance, and criminal activities.
”Every fiber cut by a road contractor, every site permit blocked by a community, every act of vandalism against telecom infrastructure, every tower brought down by illegal mining, each of these is a drop call somewhere in this country,” the Director-General lamented, noting that these disruptions directly stop children from attending online classes and cause vital mobile money transactions to fail.
The regulator called on security agencies to treat telecom vandalism as a serious offense, urged road contractors and utility providers to coordinate before digging, and petitioned local communities to welcome the installation of new towers.
Reflecting on three decades of communications regulation in Ghana, the Director-General contrasted the current digital landscape with that of 1996, a time when a basic telephone line was an elite privilege and households waited months for a connection.
While celebrating how communication has transitioned permanently “from luxury to lifeline,” the NCA boss acknowledged that regulation alone did not drive the change. The credit was shared with the operators, broadcasters, internet service providers, submarine cable operators, and consumer advocates who collectively built the market.
The anniversary forum reversed traditional protocols by dedicating the platform entirely to key stakeholder groups, including the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications and the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association to openly critique the regulator.
”The NCA is at its best when our stakeholders are at their most honest with us,” the Director-General concluded, reaffirming that resolving service quality remains the apex priority for the state regulator moving forward.
Eugenia Ewoenam Osei
