Telecom giant, MTN, has announced that its network roaming partnership with Vodafone which is currently being piloted in the Volta region will be rolled out nationwide in a couple of months.
Answering a question from BusinessWeekGhana during a stakeholder engagement with the media and other industry players on the status of the partnership with Vodafone, the CEO of MTN, Selorm Adadevoh, said the partnership has been great and the two parties are looking forward to scaling it up to the national level.
The partnership has been great and the pilot has been successful and it will go national in the next couple of months”
According to the CEO, MTN has also been in talks with both AirtelTigo and Glo to explore other partnerships that will ultimately benefit the consumer.
He noted that the preliminary outcome of the pilot has been instrumental in the development of the next phase of the partnership to cover more complex technical configurations for nationwide roaming on either network.
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 is a first step to a bigger plan by government to have a full national roaming regime amongst all operators in the country.
Selorm Adadevoh was sharing updates on MTNs operations and the way forward on the theme: “Building platforms to establish technology ecosystems in Ghana and beyond”
Background
In April this year, MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana announced the two institutions have entered into a strategic partnership to pilot national roaming in the Volta Region as a first step to a broader nationwide national roaming partnership. This agreement implied that Vodafone Ghana will expand coverage of its network by leveraging MTN’s network infrastructure in this pilot phase.
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.