Surfline 4G LTE Internet service to go nationwide
Surfline Ghana is to expand its network rollout beyond Accra and Tema to the rest of the major regional capitals in the country.
Advertisement
Although it did not mention the exact timeframe, the company announced at the official commercial launch of its Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4GLTE) Internet service in the country on August 18, that the rollout will be done in the coming months.
The move, the company explained, is to offer Ghanaians across the country the opportunity to access real time Internet service that will turn around their businesses.
The 4GLTE service, designed to provide up to 10 times the speed of Third Generation (3G) networks for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks and wireless hotspots ,is expected to provide the fastest Internet services in the country.
The 4G technologies are also designed to provide IP-based voice, data and multimedia streaming at speeds of at least 100 Megabyte per second and up to as fast as one Giggabyte per second, making it the most reliable service to transform the turnaround time of businesses and individuals.
For instance, large documents and files such as videos, audio and pictures can be downloaded in seconds instead of minutes or hours in some instances.
Data penetration
According to the National Communications Authority (NCA), the mobile data subscription in Ghana increased by 3.97 per cent in June 2014, bringing the total for the period to 13,962,318 subscribers nationwide.
MTN’s Data subscription increased substantially by 2.5 per cent to bring its market share to 50.54 per cent ending June, 2014.
Airtel’s subscription increased slightly by 0.34 per cent but its market share decreased by 0.52 per cent ending the period with 14.41 per cent;
By virtue of the 3.97 per cent growth in month-on-month data subscription base, Tigo also increased subscribership, ending the period under review with 13.83 per cent of the total market share.
Vodafone, for June, also experienced a similar fate as Tigo.
For the month under review its market share stood at 18.21 per cent.
Glo’s market share increased to 2.68 per cent while Expresso had 45,816 subscribers representing a market share of 0.33 per cent.
Competition
From the above figures, it is indicative that Surfline may have a tough time taking a chunk of the market share to enable it to make a positive impact as far as recouping its investment is concerned.
However, the experience in service quality as a result of the speed is expected to draw a large number of people to its network because of the technology being used.
Some analysts have indicated that companies providing exclusive Internet services stand the chance of giving their customers a better experience as compared to those which provide both data and voice services at the same time, such as the telcos.
This is because the more the traffic on the voice, data services tend to suffer and customers experience slow services which also tend to consume a lot of credit.
Launching the Surfline service in Accra today, the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, described the move as one meant to change the ICT landscape in the country.
According to him, the government had created the enabling environment for such companies to strive and pledged further commitments to make businesses in ICT succeed to better propel economic growth in the country.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of Surfline, Dr Yaw Akoto, told the VIP guests of the company who included the Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr Paarock Vanpercy, that “Ghanaians are disillusioned with the Internet services that are currently on offer because they have not experienced what was promised.’’
Advertisement
According to him, with the service from Surfline, customers would be guaranteed a 4GLTE service “and nothing else”.
Dr Akoto said around the world, many are enjoying real time Internet service that was stress-free and improved businesses and wondered why Ghanaians should not also be exposed to enjoy such.
The Marketing Director of Surfline, Ms Rosy Fynn, said the company will dominate the market by consistently offering the services and packages that will entice the public to stay glued to the company. GB