Government has proposed a new policy dubbed “Dig Once” to help protect telecom infrastructure and reduce fibre cut incidents across the country.
The policy is expected to cut the cost of rolling out telecoms fibre in Ghana by up to 60%, with the aim of speeding up broadband expansion and improving access to affordable data services.
Speaking at the soft launch of the 15th anniversary of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GCT), Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George said the policy will incorporate fibre infrastructure into government road construction projects currently underway under the Big Push programme, to ensure telecoms fibre is fully protected.
Fifteen years ago when GCT was first established, Ghana used to have just a few hundred of fibre cuts in a year, which was bad enough. This was mainly due to road construction, real estate development, galamsey (illegal mining) and theft.
But now things have gotten much worse, as the country is now experiencing up 8,000 fibre cuts a year due to same activities. And the impact is often huge financial losses to telcos for repairs, as well as quality of service interruptions, which impact all Ghanaians.
Recently, at the ITU meeting in Geneva, Sam George proposed that the ITU should make the protection of telecom infrastructure central to its work, particularly in conflict area. Back home in Ghana, there has been a proposal for government to declare telecom infrastructure a national security infrastructure to ensure that persons who damage them are treated as criminals.
It is in the lights of the foregoing that government proposed the Dig Once policy, to ensure that road contractors working on new roads are compelled to incorporate fibre chambers/ducts into road designs to enable telecom providers to install fibre cables without having to perform separate excavation work.
Sam George clarified that in order to avoid duplication in civil works and lower capital expenditure related to network development, telecom providers would just need to secure right-of-way access and install fibre via already-built chambers.
”According to some estimations, the Dig Once policy might lower the cost of installing fibre in Ghana by about 60%,” he said.
He pointed out that separate excavation projects are currently carried out by telecom companies and road builders, unnecessarily raising installation costs, saying that inculcating fibre chambers into road construction design will result in a more effective and economical method of developing infrastructure.
The Minister revealed that because of the initiative’s cross-sector significance, the Ministry has finished the draft policy framework after adding suggestions from the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
He said the final draft was received this week and is expected to be submitted to Cabinet for approval, adding that the aim is to rollout by the third quarter of this year.
Mr George in confident that lower fibre rollout costs will promote greater network growth, increase internet connectivity and ultimately cut data rates for customers, which could be potentially revolutionary for Ghana’s digital economy.
He said government anticipates that the policy will boost Ghana’s overall digitalisation strategy and economic competitiveness while generating long-term efficiency in the telecom industry.
