Government urged to strategically prepare for wireless innovations
Revise 1G regulations, Ken Ashigbey
Chief Executive Officer for the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ken Ashigbey, has urged Ghanaians to prepare and get ready for technological trends.
He was speaking at a webinar organized by Deloitte Ghana on the topic of Technology, Media and Telecommunication predictions, yesterday Thursday, February 3, 2022.
Ken Ashigbey who alluded to the incoming astronomical transformations in the Digital space bemoaned Ghana’s unpreparedness, saying the right infrastructure is not yet in place to fully utilize the wireless innovations.
“Fortunately, from the Ministry side, there’s been some conversation around it. We have also had a few operators talk about it. But really, I’m not too sure we are prepared or have put in place enough measures. We should have had the conversation going by now. We need to do a bit more if we want it to be done.”
Quizzing, he said “we also have to be looking at WIFI 6 so that we can look at our local context together. 5G is also going to come with densification, where we are going to need a lot of towers in closer places, among others. How do we get the needed infrastructure for it, have we considered how we are going to get the local assemblies invoked?”
Leading financial advisory firm, Deloitte Global has predicted that Wi-Fi devices will outperform 5G devices in 2022 and will likely continue to do so for the next few years.
It also predicted that at least 2.5 bilion W-Fi 6 devices will ship in 2022 versus roughly 1.5 billion 5G devices.
Mr. Ashigbey advised that Ghana’s 1G regulations should be revised to suit the 5G systems.
“The pace at which things are going to happen, the world hasn’t seen it before. One of the things we need to do globally is that we need to change the 1G regulation we have used over the years. It is not even going to be enough to have a 5G kind of regulation. We need one that protects the vulnerable. When we look at where we are going, it looks scary but we need to use the technology as well.”
Continuing he said, “we also need to look into our content, producing more content instead of just downloading what we are given. Some of them can be policies, especially with the AFCFTA, we can look at something like that. I see opportunities for advertisers, local content manufacturers to be able to plug into all these streaming wars.”
Mr. Ashigbey also believes that academia is another area that needs to be looked at with much focus on allowing students to experiment to stay abreast with the 5G innovations.
He also urged government to consider strategies to make the products affordable to all.
“One of the major challenges according to the GSMA research on adoption of technology is taxation. What you want to do is to consider what you do with taxation, so far as these industries are concerned. In the past, we have seen government take taxation off these devices. We need to work a lot more into how we can assemble some of these products locally. That’s a conversation that should happen. Beyond those devices, the cost of usage should be considered.”
“We also need to look into our content, producing more content instead of just downloading what we are given. Some of them can be policies, especially with the AFCFTA, we can look at something like that. I see opportunities for advertisers, local content manufacturers to be able to plug into all these streaming wars.”
Meanwhile, according to Kofi Awuah, a partner at Deloitte on Technology, Media and Telecommunications, advanced wireless is a strategic priority as 8 in 10 networking executives expect it to transform their enterprises by 2023, changing how they operate, develop new products and business modeis, and engage with customers.
Deloitte is a global leader in professional services providing audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and related services.
Its network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories serves four out of five Fortune Global companies.
Chief Executive Officer for the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ken Ashigbey