Ghana and Togo strengthen coordination and sharing of radio frequencies in border areas

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Extract from the article: The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP Togo) held on Wednesday 24 May 2023 in Lomé, the coordination and sharing meeting of radio frequencies in the border areas between Ghana and Togo. The objective of the meeting, w

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The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP Togo) held on Wednesday 24 May 2023 in Lomé, the coordination and sharing meeting of radio frequencies in the border areas between Ghana and Togo. The objective of the meeting, which will last three days, is to update the agreement on coordination and sharing of radio frequencies for terrestrial services signed on 1 June 2019 between Ghana and Togo. The tone of the launch was set by Kossivi Dokoué, representative of the Director General of ARCEP, in the presence of Kofi Dotsa, Director Regulation Administration-National Communications Authority (NCA Ghana).

The coordination of frequencies is of paramount importance to ensure the quality of services to populations living in border areas and those on the move. Thus, mobile actors and operators from Ghana and Togo met in Lomé to strengthen the coordination links while respecting the technical parameters set out in the coordination agreement.  During the meeting, the mobile telephony spectators will discuss the problem of accidental roaming which is becoming a recurrent phenomenon in the border areas between the two countries.

According to Kossivi Dokoué, Representative of the Director General of ARCEP, there is a need to further support the efforts of ARCEP and the NCA to achieve the objective of facilitating the use of radio frequencies at the borders in order to ensure that each user of the frequencies has access to quality services and to limit interference between the various services operated, in particular mobile telephony and FM and TV broadcasting in the two countries. This meeting comes at the right time « to conduct fruitful discussions on the effective and efficient use of this essential resource which represents the radio frequencies for mobile communications at the borders of our two countries. Today, the problem of accidental roaming at the borders must be addressed in the framework of coordination and frequency sharing. The phenomenon of accidental roaming generates additional communication costs for the populations concerned and results in a poor quality of experience for the user vis-à-vis his operator », Kossivi Dokoué stressed.

Since the last meeting held in Accra, Ghana, on 7 and 8 February 2019, significant progress has been made by each of the actors in terms of frequency coordination at our borders. However, the available data shows that much remains to be done in terms of efficiency and equity, said Bernard Amissah-Ocran, Deputy Director, Engineering-NCA.

To achieve the implementation of optimal conditions of use of the resources assigned to the various operators of the two countries, so as to considerably reduce complaints from users of electronic communications services and to facilitate the operators in the implementation of the resources assigned to them.

Indeed, for nearly three (3) years, ARCEP-Togo has been actively committed to ensuring that every user of mobile networks in Togo receives a better quality of service and mobile communications at reasonable costs.

William O.