The collapse of broadband service providers like Surfline has been attributed by the Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, to the 2015 decision to auction the 4G spectrum primarily to mobile networks, particularly MTN.
Owusu-Ekuful highlighted that this auction significantly disadvantaged broadband operators while favoring mobile operators, leading directly to the demise of local broadband wireless companies.
In an exclusive interview with Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM, she emphasized the government’s recognition of the adverse impact on these operators and expressed ongoing efforts to support their sustainability.
“Decisions taken in 2015 led directly to the collapse of these companies, these local broadband wireless operators who didn’t stand the chance once the space was opened up to the mobile network operators.
“It is as if we gave with one hand and took with the other. I have had extensive conversations with them to see how we can support them and it is not just Surfline which exited the market but Blue Broadband was also in there.”
According to Owusu-Ekuful, the auctioning of the 4G spectrum began weakening broadband providers, despite earlier assurances of exclusivity in the broadband space for local operators.
“Government sold spectrum to local operators to do broadband on the understanding that they would be given exclusivity in that space, while mobile network operators did voice and procured data services from them [broadband operators] if they wanted to give those data services to their subscribers.
“After promising them exclusivity, we went ahead and auctioned the 4G to these same big players, who MTN then acquired the spectrum because it has so much more financial muscle than these local entities and so MTN cornered the market.
The minister underscored that the spectrum’s pricing at the time made it accessible only to MTN, consolidating its position and marginalizing smaller broadband operators.
“At the price, the spectrum was pegged at the time, it was only MTN that could buy it and that made it possible for them to corner the high-speed data market and blow the rest of the operators out of the market.”