The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has raised concerns over the sharp increase in fibre cuts across the country.
Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, Sylvia Owusu-Ankomah, warns that the industry is now dealing with more than 8,000 fibre cuts annually compared to about 400 per year in earlier stages of network deployment.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Chamber’s 15th anniversary soft launch, she said the growing incidence of fibre cuts is placing significant financial and operational pressure on telecom operators, diverting resources away from network expansion and service improvement into repair and maintenance works.
She attributed the rising exposure of fibre infrastructure partly to the rapid expansion of telecommunications networks over the years, which has helped drive internet penetration in Ghana from about 4 percent to over 70 percent.
She maintains that fibre cuts remain one of the biggest threats to network stability and service reliability in Ghana.
“We are experiencing over 8,000 cuts per annum when it comes to fibre cuts, which is increasingly a strain on our operators’ resources. Resources and investment that could have been used to ensure new rollouts, you find them using it to ensure they are meeting their quality obligations by repairing those fibre cuts.
“So we want to make sure that the 15-year journey counts for something, and so one of the key milestones, as I said, we want to stop the conversation around fibre cuts and get more progressive as a country,” she remarked.
To address the challenge, the Chamber is pushing for the implementation of the proposed “dig once” policy, which seeks to make fibre duct infrastructure mandatory in major road construction projects.
The Chamber believes the policy could significantly strengthen network resilience by allowing operators to access protected underground ducts.
The industry is also looking to government support to accelerate the implementation of the policy following indications that discussions on the proposal are already at cabinet level.
According to the Chamber, resolving the fibre cut challenge is critical to sustaining network quality and supporting future digital expansion in Ghana’s communications sector.
“This [fibre cuts] has been a plague of the industry for quite a while and we believe Ghana has matured enough to put a stop to it. That is why for us the “dig once” policy needs to come to life this year,” Sylvia Owusu-Ankomah added