Glo pull out threats, potential Ghana-Nigeria trade war?

The recent threats by mobile operator, Glo, to quit the country, appear to be sparking a potential trade war between Ghana and Nigeria.


This follows a publication in the Nigerian newspaper, Business Daily linking Glo’s frustrations to what Nigerian traders say is a grand scheme by the government to clamp down on their businesses in Ghana.


The President of the Nigerian Union of Traders in Ghana, Jasper Amenike alleged in the publication of a concerted effort between the Ministry of Trade and the Ghana Investment Promotion Council to ensure that Nigerian businesses do not succeed.

Mr. Amenike further cited the shutdown of 83 shops belonging to Nigerian traders in the past seven months with 550 others expected to follow soon.

Glo’s threat to pullout, Amenike noted, was a confirmation of government’s anti-Nigerian stance.

At the heart of the traders’ complaint however, is a clause in Ghana’s Investment code requiring all foreigners interested in engaging in the retail trade to have a minimum capital of at least $300,000.

They say this is in violation of the ECOWAS protocol on free trade and movement of people.

Save up to 46% on Father's Day Book Sets to suit Dad's fancy, inlcuding the Millennium Trilogy set

According to the publication, a top level Nigerian delegation to Ghana on Monday led by its Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry was unable to workout an amicable solution.

Officials of the Trade Ministry approached by Joy Business were yet to comment on the matter.

Source: Joy Business/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Essien ruled out of World Cup

Michael Essien will miss the World Cup in South Africa

Black stars midfielder, Michael Essien, has been ruled out of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

An evaluation by a combined team of medical experts from the Ghana Football Association and Chelsea Football Club revealed that Essien will not make full recovery until the end of July.

The Ghana Football Association wishes him full recovery and a quick return to football action.

Save up to 46% on Father's Day Book Sets to suit Dad's fancy, inlcuding the Millennium Trilogy set

The midfielder was in line of making his second consecutive appearance at the World Cup following his debut four years ago in Germany.

Ghana opens its World Cup campaign in group D against Serbia on June 13.


Source: ghanafa.org

Glo Mobile must remain in Ghana!

As soon as it secured the license to operate as the sixth mobile phone operator in Ghana, Glo Mobile hit the ground running by investing massively in certain areas of Ghana’s economy.

First, Glo invested an unprecedented 15 million dollars in the Ghanaian Premier League, before going ahead to support the senior national football team, the Black Stars with an astonishing 9 million dollars. 

Glo also signed a sponsorship deal worth thousands of dollars with the Ghana National Supporter’s Union (GHANSU).

All these investments were carried out in spite of the fact the Glo hadn’t rolled out its mobile services in the country. 

Till today, Glo Mobile continues to sponsor several activities and events in the country. Associations such as the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG), The Premier League Board and the Ghana Football Association (G.F.A), continue to benefit from Glo’s benevolence.
The fact that Glo is investing millions of dollars in the Ghanaian economy despite not having begun operations in the country is an incontrovertible indication that the company is committed to contributing its own quota to Ghana’s development.

Dashed Hope and Opportunities

Ghanaians have been patiently anticipating Glo’s major take off for some time now, they know that not only will Glo’s roll-out provide them with numerous employment opportunities; it will also lead to the transformation of Ghana’s telecommunications sector. 


Unfortunately, the hopes and aspirations of many Ghanaians are about to be dashed with news that Glo Mobile intends to pull out of Ghana.


According to a Daily Graphic report, Glo Mobile ‘has decided to divest its investment in the country and exit Ghana as it faces several challenges from some interests bent on sabotaging the company’s nationwide take-off plan.’’ 

The story indicated that some of the challenges the company has faced since it was awarded a GSM license by the National Communications Authority (NCA) ‘include an encroachment on the frequency allocated to it by the NCA, the repeated sabotage of its billboards and the delay in securing approval for the swift deployment of its infrastructure, such as base stations.’


The story went on to add that ‘while Glo Mobile had been working at frenetic pace to formally roll out the network, some forces had been deliberately working around the clock to cripple its operations and prevent it from rolling out quickly.’


I’m surprised that instead of reciprocating Glo’s benevolence over the years, by supporting them in whatever capacity we can to enable them roll out as quickly as possible, some people are satanically going about derailing the efforts of the telecommunications giant. Needless to say, the destruction of Glo’s mast, billboards, and other infrastructure by some faceless individuals or perhaps organizations are sophomoric and despicable acts that should be rigorously condemned by all. 


The telecommunications industry in this country is one in which corruption thrives. Over the years, mobile phone operators in the country have contemptuously delivered poor services to Ghanaians despite the latter paying heavy amounts for voice and data services. The National Communications Authority (N.C.A) which is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that Ghanaian subscribers get their money’s worth has been utterly ineffective in that regard.


As a result, Ghanaians have become frustrated; this is especially so in view of the fact that certain mobile phone operators fail to provide quality customer care for their subscribers in addition to the poor voice and data services they offer.

To many Ghanaians, therefore, Glo Mobile represents hope and change; and the news the company intends to pull out of the country is the most devastating they have heard in recent times.


Consequences of a Pull out

If Glo Mobile eventually pulls out of Ghana, we would have succeeded in sending out the wrong signal to foreign investors and the international community at large. Prospective investors will be hesitant in investing in the country. 

The government will be deprived of millions of dollars in taxes Glo mobile would have paid to the state for its operations in the country. Organizations such as G.F.A, GHANSU, and PLB will lose the lucrative sponsorship deals they have secured from Glo.

The media also stands to lose million, perhaps billions of dollars they would have derived from advertising Glo’s product and services. Not only that, deprived communities, institutions, and individuals who would have benefited immensely from Glo’s Corporate Social Responsibility programmes will also be denied that opportunity.

Needless to say, a Glo pull out will be detrimental to Ghana’s economic development; it is Ghanaians that will be affected most, because their dreams of seeing Glo revolutionalize the telecommunications industry will remain only a dream.

Ghanaians envisage that Glo’s involvement in the telecoms industry will trigger the kind of competition that will see other mobile phone operators improve their services as well as reduce astronomical voice and data charges. If Glo pulls out at this stage, the already appalling situation in the telecom industry will deteriorate.

In essence, a Glo pull out will only affect Ghanaian mobile phone subscribers; economically, it would derail the efforts of government to attract foreign direct investment, generate employment and stimulate economic growth.


Positive Action
Glo’s involvement in Ghana is non-negotiable; it is imperative! Glo Mobile possesses immeasurable expertise in telecommunications, a situation which has seen the company achieve success especially in Nigeria and in the Republic of Benin. Indeed, Glo recently made history as the first single company to build an $800 million high-capacity fibre-optic cable, known as Glo-1. It the first successful submarine cable from the United Kingdom to Nigeria; and it will decrease telecom process and provide excess bandwidth to all the cities connected to the cable. It will also improve teleconferencing, distance learning, disaster recovery and telemedicine among several other benefits.the foregoing clearly shows Clearly Glo Mobile is a world class company whose involvement in Ghana will do the country nothing but good.


It is important, therefore, that the company is given the freewill and support it requires to successfully begin operations in Ghana. 

It behooves on government, through high level talks with the management of Glo Mobile, to ensure that the company rescinds its decision to quit as a matter of priority and urgency. 
I reiterate that by investing millions of dollars in the Ghanaian economy despite not having begun operations in the country, Glo has proven that it is ever committed to contributing its own quota to Ghana’s development. It'’s only normal, therefore, that they are supported unflinchingly by all-Ghanaians, N.C.A, government- in their quest to transform telecommunications in the country. This is imperative if Ghanaians are to realize their dream of ruling their own world.


By Samuel K. Obour

Google launches smart TV service

Search giant Google has launched a TV service that unites live television with the web.

The "smart TV" service allows people to search both live channels as well as content from websites such as YouTube.
Special TV sets - or TVs connected to a Google box - will also allow people to access the web and download applications.
The first TV sets will be produced by Sony and should be available in the Autumn.
"Video should be consumed on the biggest, brightest, best screen in your house - the television," said Rishi Chandra of the firm. "That's not the PC, or mobile."
Google showed off the service at a launch event in San Francisco that was plagued by technical glitches.
The television sets will also rely on an Intel microprocessor and have control systems built by Logitech. Users can also control the TVs through mobile phones running Google's Android operating system.
The sets and boxes will also use the Android software as well as the firm' Chrome web browser. No details were given on pricing.

Source BBC

Smart TV arrives in Ghana

Ghana has become the first African country to have SMART TV, a new digital terrestrial television service. The service was launched by Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) in collaboration with Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and would witness a commercial roll-out in the coming weeks.

According to Ahmed Wahab, Head of Marketing and Sale, Smart TV offers a smart mix of exciting local and international content for the entire family. It offers both pay-TV service and free-to-air service of existing local stations on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network. SMART TV will initially air in Accra and Kumasi and would later be extended to other regions in Ghana in the near future.

Technological development has brought about new and more efficient ways of recording, storing and processing electrical signals, enabling digital, rather than analogue, transmission. Digital television results from the application of this concept to the transmission of television signals. Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is the broadcasting of the digital television signal over the radio spectrum.

Future transmission of Digital terrestrial television (DTT) in Ghana will be based on DVB-T technology and MPEG-4/H.264 video compression. Therefore, to receive DTT broadcasts, you should confirm, at a minimum, that the technical specification(s) of your equipment meet two requirements: It is compatible with the DVB-T standard; or it is capable of decoding MPEG-4/H.264 video.

If your equipment does not fulfill these conditions, you may take one of two courses of action: If you want to keep your current television set, you need to purchase an external device, usually a set-top-box connected between the aerial and the television set, meeting the two conditions above; or If you prefer to buy a new television set and not install this external device, you should acquire an integrated digital television set which is already capable of DVB-T reception and decoding MPEG-4/H.264 video. If you also receive other television services such as Pay TV Service on the DTT platform.

DTT offers better picture and sound quality, provides space for the introduction of new channels and enables the provision of new services such as electronic programme guides (EPG), super-teletext, interactive services and high definition television.

Smart TV belongs to a Swedish multinational company called Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) which is partnering Fox International Channel as the only platform to provide Fox Entertainment in Ghana. It starts operations in Ghana with 16 channels including FOX, Showtime, Star, TRACE Tropical, Setanta Africa, BBC News, HiNolly, HomeBase, GOD TV, Kids, NET2, Viasat1, TV3 Ghana, GTV and TV Africa. Smart TV is set to launch in Kenya and Uganda later this year.

Pricing for the SMART TV digibox would start from a promotional price of GHC 89.

Smart TV Full package

Including: Decoder, antenna and programme card

Customers will have to sign an agreement to pay 12 monthly subscription

Price: GHC 119

Smart TV Standard package *

Including: Decoder, antenna

Price: GCH 173

SMART TV Subscription

1 Month Top up voucher – GHC 19

3 months Top up voucher – GHC 50

Ghana To Migrate To Digital Broadcasting

Ghana To Migrate To Digital Broadcasting

The Chairman of the National Digital Broadcasting Migration Technical Committee [NDBMTC], Mr. Joshua Peprah, has stated that Ghana has followed a long tradition of Analogue Broadcasting that started in 1935 with a British Broadcasting Corporation relay station established in Accra by the colonial rulers. The chairman stated  that the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation launched its Black and White Television Services on 31st July 1965 and upgraded to colour T.V in 1985 since the introduction of colour T.V, adding that the most innovative and profound technological advancement in broadcasting is digitisation. "Simply defined, digitisation of broadcasting is the application of digital techniques to encode audio and video signals and to transmit digital data rather than analogue waveforms on networks to end users or consumers. This results in clearer pictures, better sound, enhanced interactivity and higher spectrum efficiency,” he mentioned. However, on a digital broadcasting platform, about 4 to 16 TV Programmes representing 4 to 16 TV stations can be transmitted over one frequency channel of 7 or 8 Mhz, he explained that this provides additional capacity for the transmission of audit broadcasting and other data communication services to the people. According to him digital TV can be offered on various platforms including satellite, cable, terrestrial and handhelds or mobile TV. “Currently, satellite, cable and mobile TV broadcasting in Ghana are digitized. The terrestrial platform that is yet to be fully digitized, even though the digitisation process has already started,” he disclosed. Mr. Peprah explained that digital TV can be either free to view or pay to view depending on the providers business model. In the case of pay to view, he said, a consumer will require a conditional access module supplied by the service provider. The Minister for Information, Hon. John Tia Akologo, said that the Government of Ghana recognised the importance of the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting and has therefore established the NDBMTC to ensure a co-ordinated and cost-effective migration. "We the beneficiaries and members will work together to show more concern and seriousness about this project,” he noted. He emphasised that government is very much concerned about this and assured that they will continue to support the program to its completion. Source: ISD (Antoinette I. Mintah)