A Ghanaian-American fibre optics inventor,
Dr. Thomas Mensah, has proposed that development of a Bullet-train system in
the country to link northern and southern parts at the back of fibre optic
technology will optimise movement of goods and services in the country’s
transportation industry.
“We are pushing for the development of
Bullet-trains in this country; we are going to do it. If we have a fibre optic
line along such high-speed railway lanes, a passenger can sit with a Wi-Fi in
the train and have Internet. And when the fibre optic is all the way to Tamale,
we can branch off to all the villages and all corners; it means that broadband
services can be available there.”
Dr. Mensah made the proposal in Accra at
the opening of the maiden Broadband Ghana Forum in Accra. The forum was
organised by the Broadband Communications
Chamber (BCC) under the auspices of the Ministry
of Communications, under the theme ‘Broadband:
The Catalyst for Sustainable Socio-economic Development’.
Dr.
Mensah explained that Bullet-trains would move fast in transporting people to
and from urban areas, which would improve the country’s economy and science and
technology sector.
“We can grow the economy by building Bullet-trains
in Ghana, which is very important. It means in one and half hours I can leave
Accra and be in Tamale,’’ he said.
The Bullet-train is another form of a
railway system designed for speeds above 200-300 kilometres per hour (kmph) and
is generally called high-speed - sections of these routes may have lower speed
limits for safety reasons.
Only 16 nations have high-speed railways - China
boasts the world's longest network with 27,000km of such tracks. Japan, Spain,
France and Germany are the others where tracks dedicated for high-speed trains
stretch over 1,000 km.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu Ekuful, Minister of
Communications, urged telecommunication operators in the country to discuss
co-sharing broadband infrastructure to reduce overhead cost and ensure low cost
for Internet in the country.
There are a lot of fibre optic cables
deployed by some individual broadband companies, telcos and Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) on the ground which are not being co-shared. It is therefore
important for these players to sit together and discuss how to co-share the
infrastructure, Mrs. Ekuful stated.
She said: “We have a lot of metro fibre
around the large cities, while major parts of this country are not covered. We
can’t continue this way. It is very expensive to lay fibre, so we can sit down
in a room to decide that, ‘okay, there is enough fibre here’. We all want
to extend our service to another location.
“Let us join our resources instead of
everybody laying down fibre to extend services to, say, Nandom. Let’s decide
that, ‘okay, company A will do point A to point B. Company B will continue from
point B to point C. Or an infrastructure company - set up not to provide the
services but to lay down the infrastructure - will lay down the fibre and
everybody will lease needed capacity to do their work.”
Mrs. Ekuful further stated: “So, they will
reduce their capital expenditure and they won’t need to invest so much in
building their own fibre network; they can lease capacity from infrastructure
companies to extend their services to the areas they want to extend services
to.
“So, we believe that if we work together to
develop an infrastructure-sharing code and facilitate that - and make it easier
for them to also extend their service - there will be competition alright, but
they will be competing on the quality of services they provide; and it gives
consumers more choice, too.
“They can decide as to which network to use
in their locality. We want to connect the entire country within the next two to
three years. It is possible if we work with the network operators, broadband
wireless operators and Internet service providers to see how best we can do this
by sharing the cost of laying down the necessary infrastructure and pooling our
resources together - because at the end of the day if it works and every part
of this country is connected, all of them can expand their services to all
parts of the country instead of the small geographical locations they are
limited to now,” she stated.
Elorm Gustav Tamakloe, Chief Executive
Officer of the Broadband Communications Chamber (BCC), an advocacy and lobbying
group for development and expansion of the broadband industry, and organisers
of the forum admitted that “In todays’ world, broadband is a critical part of
any national economic and social development agenda”.
This, he noted, is because it drives
economic growth, productivity and job-creation.
“It is absolutely essential for Ghana’s
economic future, long-term productivity growth and global economic
competitiveness. With broadband infrastructure, delivery of voice, video and
data at ultra-high-speed yields numerous benefits - including connectivity
improvement, better health and education services, and efficient government
services,” Mr. Tamakloe remarked.
