Nigeria based Globacom (Glo Mobile) has won a licence to operate mobile cellular service in the Republic of Ghana - just a week after the company launched its services in Benin. The company won the license  in a tender auction.

 Globacom's management expressed gratitude to the telecoms regulator, the NCA for the confidence reposed in the company and promised to “roll out aggressively” in the country “very shortly”.

The company is also currently bidding for a license in Togo.

Last month, the NCA also announced plans to offer number portability on both landline and mobile networks. Joshua Peprah, Director of Regulations and Licensing at NCA said “We’ve also had informal discussions with the telecom operators on this service and in principle, they have no problem with it. Their main concern has to do with the cost associated with the implementation of the service,"

However, he added that “as of now, we have not mandated the telecom operators to implement the service. The market should really be ripe for it and besides, the stakeholder consultation is still ongoing.”

If number portability is introduced, that generally assists new market entrants to take subscribers from the incumbent operators.

The country already has five operators, but according to figures from the Mobile World database, the country only had 7.6 million customers at the end of last year. That figure equates to a population penetration level of just 33%.

The five operators (and market share) are: MTN (53%), Tigo (26.7%), Ghana Telecom (16.8%), Kasapa Telecom (3.5%) & Westel (0%)

Source:cellular-news