Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has expressed her approval on the decision of the Commercial Division of the High Court in dismissing MTN’s suit against the National Communications Authority.
The sector minister intimated that the verdict from the court will give the regulator the chance to commence work on implementing some measures within the Telco industry in its bid to provide a fair chance for other network operators.
Speaking in an interview, Ursula Ekuful disclosed that the telecoms policy has made provision for any operator that has more than 40% of the market to be declared as dominant and that is what the court has done.
“I am glad that the court has dismissed MTN’s application for judicial review and indicated that the NCA went through the proper processes to declare it as a significant market power. I am sure they will work very quickly to continue the processes that were suspended because of the court case”.
Commenting on NCA’s delay in rectifying the imbalance within the telecom sector, she revealed this fomented unhealthy and unfair competition for Ghana to have a single dominant telecom operator with huge market shares.
She further stressed on the need for regulators to take a critical look and work towards redressing the imbalance created.
“It is not healthy for any country to have a single dominant operator which has about 70 percent of the revenue market share and 60 percent of the total market share. It is unhealthy, and that is why certain measures need to be kicked in.
“We want the regulator to sit with all players and develop sustainable mechanisms to address the current imbalance and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Maybe, we will also fault the regulator for not acting early enough because the signs have been there as far back as 2015 and they have been aware of that because it was in 2015 that the study was commissioned and the results came out either late 2016 or early 2017, and the regulator has been aware of that.
“So, it is incumbent they build on that, updated that, and that led to the declaration earlier in June this year, so I’m hopeful that they will act timeously to put in place the measures that correct the imbalance.”
On Tuesday, September 1, 2020, the Commercial Division of the High Court in Accra dismissed the suit filed by MTN. In dismissing the suit, the Court held that there is enough evidence of consultation for the NCA to act as their actions were not against the law.
The Court indicated that the opportunity offered to MTN to make input by way of data fulfills the requirement of due process and procedural fairness.
That notwithstanding, the court stated that MTN is still permitted by law to engage NCA on the implementation.
MTN had a market share of 46% as at 2016, but now holds about 58% of voice and 68% of data in 2020, according to NCA,.
