Vodafone, MTN agree to pilot National Roaming in Volta Region
MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana have entered a strategic partnership to pilot national roaming in the Volta Region as a first step to a broader nationwide national roaming partnership.
A joint statement from the two leading telcos said “This agreement will see Vodafone Ghana expand coverage of its network by leveraging MTN’s network infrastructure in this pilot phase.”
National roaming implementation in Ghana is intended to facilitate universal access and accelerate digitalization in line with the country’s ambitions of a digital economy.
The pilot, according to the statement, is a first step to a bigger plan by Government to have a full national roaming regime amongst all operators in the country.
Patricia Obo-Nai, CEO of Vodafone Ghana in a statement said, “The implementation of national roaming will enable Vodafone Ghana customers to stay connected in areas outside our current locations of coverage. This is especially important for rural communities as national roaming invariably provides a greater choice of network providers.
“We believe strongly that the collaboration in the Volta Region is a positive step, and working together with the Government, the regulator and MTN Ghana, we look forward to extending the national roaming service beyond the Volta Region in due course.”
“This agreement is a milestone for the industry and is in line with our Ambition 2025 strategic intent of “Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress” CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, said.
“MTN fully supports the Government’s National Roaming plans. We acknowledge that national roaming will extend network coverage for Ghanaians nationwide and support the growth of the Ghana Telecommunications industry.
“Our Engineers have worked tirelessly to test and develop solutions to various challenges encountered along the journey and we are excited about what lies ahead in this partnership with Vodafone Ghana.” Selorm added.
Over the coming months, the outcome of the pilot would be instrumental in the development of the next phase of the partnership to cover more complex technical configurations for nationwide roaming on either network. We would update the market in due course.
We take the opportunity to thank the National Communications Authority (NCA) for their support and engagement through the process, and for their approval for us to proceed with this pilot.
We also thank the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization for putting in place the policy framework to support such a partnership for the industry at this stage of the Ghana Telecommunications industry evolution.
We are confident that this is just one of many forward-looking policies to come to safeguard the viability of the industry into the future.
