CEO of the Chamber of Telecommnications, Kenneth Ashigbey
The Chamber of Telecommunications has revealed that the Ghanaian telecoms industry recorded over 2000 fibre cuts in the last six months.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber, Kenneth Ashigbey, disclosed this at a sensitization workshop organized in Takoradi.
He stressed the need for a collective effort to help curb the menace of fibre cuts which he said was hurting the telecoms industry.
The cuts which were caused mainly by road contractors, private developers, some criminals and other utility providers, result in disruption of communication services with negative consequences for the country.
The CEO pointed out that the Western Region recorded over 250 fibre cuts which formed about 12.15% of the total cuts in the country.
The workshop brought together 50 stakeholders from the road agencies, road contractors, utility service providers, local government, regulators and others who worked within the reservations or play critical roles in its management.
He bemoaned the fact that over GH¢30 million had been spent by the telecom companies to solve some of the problems but they are persisting.
“The telecommunication industry also recorded over 150,000 litres of diesel, and 240 batteries stolen from the cell sites with a whopping 18 million affected subscribers and businesses within the value chain,” he revealed.
He said “we cannot continue to accept this problem as the norm; therefore, we are here today to work with the stakeholders to agree on a better way of doing things to reduce drastically the impact of these cuts, thefts and damage to our infrastructure.”
The meeting focused on rallying participants towards building an action plan for better coordination to curb the menace.
Stakeholders agreed that strengthening the Regional Engineering Coordinating Team (RECT) and the District Engineering Coordinating Team (DECT) were essential to managing the ‘Right of Way’ activities within the metropolis, municipalities and districts.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi