NewzThe New Patriotic Party (NPP) has backed the government’s plan to upgrade rural telephony infrastructure to a minimum of 4G but is urging authorities to prioritise communities that remain without connectivity under the existing programme. The party said the move towards faster and more reliable connectivity was a legitimate and necessary objective, particularly as Ghana expands digital services across the country. It noted that the rural telephony infrastructure deployed under the previous administration was designed to accommodate future upgrades, meaning the transition to 4G could be pursued as part of a longer-term development programme.
However, the NPP argued that the government’s immediate priority should be to complete infrastructure that has already been constructed and connect equipment that has already been procured. It said prioritising a technology upgrade before addressing basic connectivity could leave communities that currently have no service waiting even longer for access. “A community that has no service at all gains nothing from a decision about whether it should eventually receive 3G or 4G,” the party stated.
It added that the immediate obligation was: “to connect the sites that have already been built and paid for, to deploy the equipment already in stock, and to restore service where it has lapsed.” NPP cautions against widening digital divide The party warned that an upgrade programme that runs ahead of the completion of existing rural telephony projects could worsen inequalities in access to telecommunications services. “An upgrade programme that runs ahead of completion of the existing programme risks leaving the citizens with the weakest coverage waiting longest,” it said. The NPP is therefore calling on the government to publish details of the sequencing, financing and costing of the proposed 4G upgrade.
It also wants the government to demonstrate that the upgrade programme will not delay the completion of outstanding rural connectivity projects. The party maintained that expanding the network to 4G should complement, rather than come at the expense of, efforts to provide basic connectivity to communities that are still without service. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is demanding answers over the continued lack of connectivity in 46 hard-to-reach communities covered by Ghana’s Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project, despite infrastructure it says is already in place to provide service.
The party claims a satellite hub at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT has been upgraded, tested and prepared to provide backhaul connectivity for the 46 sites. According to the NPP, the facility was procured under a valid contract and has additional capacity to serve more locations, raising questions about why the affected communities remain without connectivity. “The 46 communities concerned are not unreachable,” the party said in a statement signed by Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Chairman of its Policy Co-ordination Committee.
It argued that the communities remain unconnected because the contracted hub service has not been taken up and paid for. “That is a commercial and administrative decision, not a technical constraint, and the distinction matters to the citizens affected,” the NPP said. NPP supports 4G upgrade but wants existing sites connected The NPP said it was not opposed to the government’s plans to upgrade rural telephony infrastructure to 4G.
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