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The National Communications Authority (NCA) has finally published market share figures for the telecoms industry for the year 2024, and they indicate that all efforts to cure the market imbalance do not seem to have achieved much so far.
The NCA used to publish industry statistics every 90 days, but since market leader MTN Ghana was named a significant market power (SMP) as a first step to curing the grave market imbalance, the NCA has been sluggish in publishing industry statistics for the public to know what is happening.
The last time the NCA published industry statistics was about two years ago, in January 2023, and it was a consolidated report as of that particular month, compared to the previous month, December 2022. It did not show the progressive performance of the market monthly or even quarterly.
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But in an article titled Shaping the Future – The NCA’s Achievements, published on December 20, 2024, on its website, the NCA detailed various landmarks in its activities over the last few years, including the current market share statistics.
Find below the infographics of the current voice and 4G market share figures, as contained in the article.
Mobile Voice Market share and Fixed Voice Market share as of July 2024
These figures show that after naming MTN SMP and implementing measures to help the non-SMPs to catch up, not only has MTN even gained more subscribers and market share than the others, but the others have actually lost subscribers and market share over the period.
Indeed, in 2022, all the telcos recorded losses due to the SIM registration. The December 2022 figures indicated that even MTN lost over 5% data market share and some 0.33% voice market share at the time.
So those losses had nothing to do with the SMP interventions. It was strictly due to SIM re-registration and the insistence on the use of only the Ghana Card for the purpose.
January 2023
But since January 2023, the last time NCA published figures, MTN has been gaining, while the others have been dropping numbers, except AT Ghana, which gained marginally in January 2023 because Glo had shut down and migrated all of its subscribers to AT Ghana.
In that month, Vodafone (now Telecel) was the only loser, -4%.
Find the December 2022 and January 2023 figures as published by NCA below:
Even with Glo adding its numbers to AT Ghana to give it a boost in the voice market share in December 2022, the operator still lost 4.6% data market share by January 2023, and Telecel also continued in its losing ways, 6.47%, while MTN was the only operator that gained market share in spite of impeding SMP measures.
On the 4G front, MTN continued to dominate with almost 80% per the January 2023 figures, as it still dominates now with over 82% as of July 2024.
Technology Neutrality
Meanwhile, NCA has put in a number of measures to help create a level playing field going forward. One of those measures in technology neutrality, which allows the following:
1. The opportunity for operators who do not currently have 4G services to deploy it within their current spectrum assignment, levelling the playing field and enhancing their competitiveness.
2. The option for non-SMP operators with 4G services to re-farm portions of their current
spectrum assignment to improve the quality of their 4G services.
3. Enhanced consumer choice for 4G services.
Meanwhile, NCA has also approved a national roaming arrangement between the various telcos, which allows each of them to serve the others’ customers in areas where others lack coverage or connectivity.
Shared 5G Network
The NCA has also licensed the Next Generation Infrastructure Company (NGIC) as a single operator to build and run an open-access, shared 5G network on a wholesale basis so that all operators will have access to the same 5G infrastructure to ensure a level playing field.
The strategy reflects the government’s commitment to ensuring equal access to internet connectivity throughout the country at an affordable rate for all.
The 5G network was launched on November 1, 2024, but Ghanaians are yet to start experiencing its benefits on any of the networks.
Indeed, the core network for operators to integrate and make service available to consumers is ready and has been inspected by the NCA. Currently, AT Ghana and Telecel are still doing some minimal upgrades on networks to make integration to the 5G network smooth. It is therefore expected that by January 2025, Ghanaians will start experiencing 5G services.
As to whether tech neutrality, national roaming, and shared 5G networks will help to bridge the yawning market gap is still yet to be seen. So far, MTN has not joined the shared 5G network, and there are indications that they are still pursuing the possibility of getting a separate license outside of the shared infrastructure arrangement.
