Fix problems before expanding coverage

 The call on telecommu­nication companies op­erating in the country to expand their network coverage to meet the growing demands of the population has come at the right time.

Participants at the end of the first day of the 76th Annual New Year Conference (ANYC), mak­ing the call, said the persistent network challenges in the country remained a significant hindrance to the digital user experience, thereby hampering efforts to bridge the digital divide.

The participant’s argument that the expansion of the tele­communication network would enable more Ghanaians to access financial technologies such as mobile banking, mobile money, and online marketplaces is indis­putable.

However, there are questions of issues with system challenges that the telecommunications companies in the country must address before expansion can be effective and profitable.

Sometimes, it becomes very difficult to have calls go­ing through on some of the networks, if not all, and this is frustrating, especially when some urgent communication must be done or business transacted.

It is incontestable that the telecommunication network has come to facilitate easy communi­cation with business transactions in many instances at lessened cost as well but its frustration is hard to tolerate.

It usually stresses up people in dire need of the contact for an urgent purpose.

Sometimes you wonder why you should get the feedback “The number you are calling is incorrect” to your attempt to recall a number you had called moments earlier, not days.

Imagine going to do mobile money transaction and you are told the network has challenges and you waiting without know­ing when it will start operating normally.

Those using the services of one network provider or another also have their individual stories to tell.

The summary of all the network challenges is that the problems sometimes waste pro­ductive man hours, create stress, boredom and what have you.

The world has gone digital and everyone wants to be part of the system, hence there is growing demand for it everywhere.

Therefore, the call to expand telecommunication network coverage to meet the growing demands of the country’s popu­lation cannot be dismissed.

However, the problems bedev­illing the existing infrastructure, particularly machinery, must be fixed first.

Expertise in the various as­pects of the system must also be updated continuously.

Then customer service too must be enhanced.

When these are taken care of, then the network coverage ex­pansion can be done, otherwise we can guess that the current problems can be worsened.

It is a happy moment in the country today going to typical villages in the hinterlands and seeing people using mobile phones.

This means messages can be passed on to people anywhere in the country and mobile transac­tions done but that joy is killed when network challenges become the bane of smooth communica­tion and mobile money transac­tions.

It is an open secret that due to such challenges, it is only one network that is reliable for mobile money transaction every­where you go in the country.

This is not good enough because sometimes that network too experiences problems.

Therefore, let the telecommu­nication network service provid­ers plan to expand coverage but must be prepared to readily fix the problems when they arise.

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