MTN records more than 100 optical fiber cuts each month

Company News on Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-04-09

MTN Ghana, worried about the high number of fiber optic cuts (more than 100 per month), which hinder the provision of quality services, called for serious concerted efforts to end the threat.

At a meeting of editors, in Accra on Monday, to present its service delivery plan for 2019, as well as its performance of the previous year, the telecommunications giant has identified the fiber cut as a major threat to its efforts to provide superior customer service.

Road and pipeline construction is responsible for 49% of the reductions, while private developers account for 37% of the problem.

The works undertaken by the electricity distribution services, the Ghana Water Company Limited and the Ghana Railway Company Limited represent 7% of the destruction; also works for the mining sector, among others.

Telecommunications companies use fiber optics to transmit telephone signals, Internet communications and cable television signals.

MTN plans to invest $ 160 in network and information technology systems to celebrate the customer with superior access.

According to the experts, because of its lower attenuation and interference, it is preferred to copper wires in long-distance and high-demand applications. It has much lower loss levels in the transmission medium and has thus enabled much higher data rates to be handled.

Optical fiber is used for large backbone telecommunication infrastructures, Ethernet systems, broadband distribution and data networks in general.

Their replacement would have cost the telecommunications companies millions of cedis.

Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey, General Manager of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, said the threat of fiber shutdown was a serious concern. The House was therefore working with the National Communications Authority and other stakeholders to deal with it.

The telecommunications industry, he said, is very promising to make a quantum leap in Ghana's socio-economic development and should therefore be supported by favorable tax regimes for its growth.