- Telecel Enters Ghana’s 5G Race After Government Ends Ambani-Linked Monopoly
Ghana has awarded Telecel three spectrum lots for fifth-generation mobile services, advancing a decisive shift from the country’s troubled single-wholesale-network experiment towards direct investment and competition among telecom operators.
The National Communications Authority assigned Telecel Ghana three lots in the 2.3GHz band following a competitive process covering the 700MHz, 2.3GHz and 3GHz spectrum bands.
The award gives Ghana’s second-largest mobile operator additional capacity to develop its own 5G services and expand mobile broadband, rather than depending exclusively on the state-backed Next-Gen InfraCo network.
“This award is an important step in our preparations for the rollout of 5G,” Komla Buami, Telecel Ghana’s Director of External Affairs, said.
“It will provide additional capacity to improve the customer experience and contribute to the continued growth of Ghana’s digital economy.”
The award marks a reversal of the model Ghana adopted in 2024, when NGIC received exclusive rights to operate the country’s wholesale 5G network until 2034.
Under that arrangement, mobile operators were expected to purchase network capacity from NGIC rather than acquire spectrum and construct their own competing 5G infrastructure.
NGIC partnered with Radisys, a subsidiary of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, alongside Nokia, Tech Mahindra, K-NET and Ascend Digital Solutions.
The former government argued that the shared-network structure would lower deployment costs, prevent infrastructure duplication and reproduce elements of the low-cost digital transformation associated with India’s Jio Platforms.
That ambition was not matched by deployment.
NGIC had only 49 operational sites by March 2026, substantially below Ghana’s target of 1,200 sites by 2027. The government consequently moved to terminate its exclusive concession eight years before its scheduled expiry and opened the spectrum market to direct applications from operators.
The central policy shift is not simply that Telecel has received more spectrum. It is that Ghana has abandoned the assumption that one state-backed wholesale provider should determine the pace of the country’s 5G development.
The wholesale model had a legitimate economic rationale. Building multiple overlapping networks can be expensive, particularly in a market where operators already struggle to extend reliable broadband into rural communities.
A neutral wholesale company could, in principle, build shared infrastructure and allow operators to compete on services rather than duplicate towers, fibre and radio equipment.
But the model concentrated execution risk in one entity. Once NGIC struggled to finance and deliver its rollout, the entire country’s 5G programme slowed.
Opening the market distributes that risk among operators with existing customers, infrastructure, technical teams and cash flow. It also creates a stronger commercial incentive to deploy because each company can connect network investment directly to subscriber growth and revenue.
The trade-off is that operator-led networks could reproduce existing market inequalities.
MTN Ghana controls a dominant share of the country’s mobile data market and possesses greater financial capacity than its competitors. Without carefully designed spectrum rules and infrastructure-sharing requirements, the company could extend its advantage into 5G.
Telecel Group chief executive Moh Damush previously warned that the licensing process should not be decided solely by which applicant offered the most money.
“It’s critical for the government to ensure that the auction is not conducted on the basis of the highest bidder,” he said. “That will exacerbate the advantages of significant market power and will not foster a proper competitive environment.”
The NCA’s process made three lots available in the 700MHz band, five in the 2.3GHz band and three in the 3GHz band.
MTN Ghana was the sole qualified applicant for the 700MHz spectrum and applied for the maximum two lots permitted under the rules. The allocation generated US$100.9mn in licence fees, according to the regulator.
The 700MHz band is commercially valuable because its signal travels over longer distances and penetrates buildings more effectively, making it suitable for broad population coverage.
Telecel and Goal Telecommunications applied for four of the five available 2.3GHz lots, leaving that band undersubscribed. Telecel subsequently secured the three lots for which it applied.
Demand for the 3GHz band exceeded supply, with MTN and Telecel applying for four lots against three available. That higher-frequency spectrum can support greater network capacity and faster speeds, particularly in dense urban and commercial areas.
The different characteristics of the bands matter for competition. An operator with low-band spectrum can cover a wider area with fewer sites, while mid-band holdings provide the capacity needed to serve high concentrations of data users.
The final structure of spectrum holdings will therefore influence not only which company launches first, but also the cost and quality of the services each can provide.
For Telecel, winning spectrum is only the beginning.
The operator must finance radio equipment, backhaul infrastructure, software upgrades and compatible network cores. It must also ensure that customers have access to 5G-capable devices and affordable data packages.
Telecel increased its capital investment by 60 per cent over the 2023–2026 period compared with the preceding four years and has been expanding its network footprint. The additional spectrum gives it greater flexibility, but the commercial return will depend on how quickly customers migrate to higher-value services.
“We look forward to continued engagement with the Authority on spectrum rationalisation,” Mr Buami said.
“A well-planned spectrum framework will support network investment, improve service quality and provide the capacity required to meet the country’s growing demand for mobile services.”
That reference to rationalisation is important. Ghana’s mobile operators hold spectrum acquired under different licences and technological conditions. Efficient 5G deployment may require regulators to reorganise fragmented holdings into contiguous blocks that can support greater capacity.
The government wants 5G to reach at least 70 per cent of the population by March 6, 2027, when Ghana marks its 70th independence anniversary.
That target is ambitious given the limited deployment achieved under NGIC and the time required to install, test and commercially launch new networks.
Ghana is also behind several regional markets. Previous GSMA Intelligence forecasts suggested that Ghana could reach about 7 per cent 5G population coverage by the end of 2026, compared with 22 per cent in Nigeria, 38 per cent in Kenya and more than 60 per cent in South Africa.
The gap is not merely about headline technology. Faster and more reliable networks could support cloud computing, industrial automation, digital finance, telemedicine and new enterprise services.
But Ghana must avoid allowing a politically attractive coverage target to produce an urban-centred rollout that leaves rural communities on ageing 2G and 3G infrastructure.
The stronger policy would combine competitive urban deployment with enforceable rural coverage obligations, infrastructure sharing and measurable service-quality standards.
The end of NGIC’s exclusivity does not necessarily require the wholesale company to disappear. Its existing infrastructure could still provide shared capacity, particularly where individual operator investment is commercially difficult.
Ghana’s new model can therefore combine NGIC’s wholesale network with independently deployed operator infrastructure. The key difference is that NGIC will no longer have the power to determine the entire market’s speed of progress.
Telecel’s spectrum award gives competition a second chance to deliver what exclusivity did not. The real measure of success will not be the number of licences issued or the revenue generated from spectrum.
It will be whether Ghanaians receive faster, more reliable and more affordable connectivity—and whether the new competitive model reaches beyond Accra’s commercially attractive neighbourhoods to the communities that remain on the wrong side of the digital divide.
