Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu Ekuful has explained the inability of the National Communications Authority (NCA) to grant licenses to satellite operations relative to internet services like Starlink.
She explained that the NCA did not have a licensing framework for satellite operators intending to provide direct retail service to customers, as envisioned by Starlink.
It is recalled that in December last year, the NCA cautioned against the use and sale of Starlink internet services in Ghana.
Later, on Monday, March 18, 2024, the Communications Minister Mrs Owusu-Ekuful noted that the authority has now established the necessary framework for licensing such entities to operate in Ghana.
“And so they are ready to start licensing entities like that to start operating in this country. And so that’s why I said that very soon. And they’ve already started engaging them to see when and how they can also access our market,” she told Parliament.
Meanwhile, the NCA and key stakeholders in the financial and other sectors have agreed on the way forward with regard to how to mitigate the effects of disruptions in internet service.
The agreement was reached during a meeting the NCA held with the stakeholders in Accra on Monday, March 18 over the impact of the cut in internet service on their operations.
The institutions that they met were the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Ghana Association of Banks (GAB), Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Central Securities Depository, Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mobile Network Operators (MNOS), Subsea Cable Landing Service Providers, Ghana Internet Exchange (GIX), Accra Internet Exchange (AIX).
The objective of the meeting, according to a statement issued by the NCA, was to understand and find solutions to the peculiar challenges facing financial and public utility service providers regarding the impact of the current data connectivity disruptions affecting banking transactions and digital payments of utilities such as water and electricity.
At the end of the meeting, the NCA said, it was agreed that due to the limited bandwidth currently available, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) would review their operations and consider the possibility of prioritising and allocating more data resources to the above-mentioned and other critical services while they work with the Subsea Cable Landing Service Providers to progressively improve internet data capacity.
It was further recommended that the financial and utility service providers should in the medium to long term, consider hosting critical services locally to ensure continuous service delivery in the event of a major disruption such as the current situation and to leverage local internet exchanges (GIX and AIX).
The meeting also noted that the Subsea Cable Landing Service Providers and MNOS progressively continue to receive capacity from their international partners as they work towards full restoration of data services.
“User experience will continue to improve as additional capacity becomes available,” the statement said.