Nigeria based Globacom (Glo Mobile) says that it has paid the $50.1 million license fee for the mobile license it won in the Republic of Ghana last week. The company's director of New Markets, Mr. Yinka Olafimihan said that he had confirmation from the  telecoms regulator, the NCA that it had received the payment in full - and the company would immediately start the rollout of its network.

 "With the payment of the licence fee, Globacom would immediately begin the deployment of personnel and infrastructure towards an early rollout of services in the West African country," he said. The company is also currently bidding for a license in Togo and launched its new network in Benin only a couple of weeks ago.

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%)

Last month, the regulator 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,"

Source:cellular-news