Ursula Owusu explains how Surfline and other broadband companies collapsed

The Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has attributed the collapse of broadband service providers, such as Surfline, to the 2015 decision to auction the 4G spectrum to mobile networks, particularly MTN.

In an interview with Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show, Owusu-Ekuful explained that this move gave mobile operators an undue advantage, undermining local broadband operators.

She mentioned ongoing discussions with these operators to explore support measures to ensure their viability.

The minister highlighted that the initial promise of exclusivity to broadband providers was compromised by the subsequent auction.

“It is as if we gave with one hand and took with the other. I have had extensive conversations with them to see how we can support them and it is not just Surfline which exited the market but Blue Broadband was also in there.”

She told Bernard Avle that putting up the 4G spectrum for auction began weakening the broadband providers.

“Government sold spectrum to local operators to do broadband on the understanding that they would be given exclusivity in that space, while mobile network operators did voice and procured data services from them [broadband operators] if they wanted to give those data services to their subscribers.

“After promising them exclusivity, we went ahead and auctioned the 4G to these same big players, who MTN then acquired the spectrum because it has so much more financial muscle than these local entities and so MTN cornered the market."

The Minister has also clarified that MTN, one of Ghana’s leading telecommunications companies, has not been excluded from the 5G rollout plans.

On May 30, when the government announced its plans to introduce 5G within the next six months, industry experts expressed concerns about why MTN was not part of the consortium – Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) – tasked with implementing the 5G network.

She refuted the claims that MTN was deliberately excluded, calling them a false alarm and far from the truth.