Telecommunications facilities are important to a school pupil just as it is to the tomato seller or a business tycoon. The uses and importance to business people cannot be overemphasized but Devine Ocloo, an 11-year old primary six pupil finds it necessary to speak with his mom when the need arises while the market woman can attest to increased sales via the mobile telephone.
"My mom bought it for me so I can talk with her anytime she is away from me and whenever I need something at school," says Devine when questioned why he sends mobile phone to school. And Emelia Mensah a trader in fresh tomatoes says, "with my cell phone, I do not wait for my customers to come to me. I sometimes call to supply them tomatoes at their door steps. In fact, now I do not supply only to their respective homes, but also to their offices especially on Fridays." Emelia currently owns three handsets from different operators because her customers use other networks thus improving connectivity, reducing charges, benefitting from promotions and increasing sales.
Divine and Emelia's stories are just but a few and emphasizes the importance of telecommunications to socio-economic development globally and most especially to Ghana as the country strives to meet the Millennium Development Goal targets by 2015.
Ghana has been at the forefront of the ICT revolution in Africa for almost two decades. Liberalization basic telecommunication services in August 1994, the country took an important step to embrace the potential of competition to generate growth and innovation in the sector.
To build on this foundation and make the country a knowledge-based information society, the government, consistent with its ICT policy acknowledged the need to integrate Ghana with the emerging economic order where information and knowledge are fundamental to achieving competitiveness, investment, development of human capacity and good governance.
The basis is that through appropriate use of ICTs in an open, participatory and facilitating environment, Ghana would create wealth and prosperity. To help realize these objectives, the national telecommunication infrastructure must be developed and promoted in an open and competitive environment. The country's National Communication Policy, therefore, defines the framework within which telecommunication will evolve.
Today, Ghana has recorded an impressive performance in the telecoms market but with mobile phone lines exceeding fixed lines by 40:1 and recording one of the highest number of mobile phone usage in Africa. With a combined tele-density of more than 50, further potential exists for basic voice and broadband data services (2009 Ghana Telecom market statistics and forecast).

Background to the Liberalization

Telecommunications is one of the aspects of a wider trend of technological and market convergence and encompasses broadcasting, information technology and electronic commerce. Liberalization of the sector in Ghana began in the early part of the 1990s to provide consumers with better, new and less costly services. Emerging as one of the first countries to lead the way in liberalization and deregulation in Africa, Ghana encouraged and promoted private sector participation. The effort was to complement activities of the then Ghana Posts and Telecommunications, which had monopoly power, increase coverage, introduce value-added telecoms services and increase the subscribers' access to terminal equipment.
Ghana launched the Accelerated Development Plan (ADP) for telecommunications which became a blue print for liberalization to ensure sustained improvement in the availability, reliability and quality of public services; improve public access in rural and urban areas to telecoms services through the provision of payphone facility; expand the coverage of mobile phones; and enhance Ghana's competitive advantage in the region through provision of high-quality communication services to the business community.
The ADP adopted strategies which included privatization of Ghana Telecoms (Ghana Post and Telecom