Analysis of Co-Location of Telecommunication Infrastructure In Ghana

Abstract

A visitor, who arrives in the city of Accra today, will see huge tall metallic slender structures (towers or mast) going as high as 50 meters, being used for the purpose of cell sites for telecommunication companies. Currently there are six mobile operators in Ghana (VODAFONE, TIGO, AIRTEL, GLO, EXPRESSO and MTN not neglecting the LTE providers, Surfline, BLU and BUSY). The indiscriminate installation of towers in Ghana has however congested the skyline of the city. This research is aimed at analysing the extent of infrastructure sharing, develop a model that can be followed by these Telecos and lastly analyse the cost benefits of engaging in tower sharing. MTN Ghana was used as the case study of this research. The extent of infrastructure sharing was investigated and found out that only passive type of sharing was practiced in Ghana and these Telecos were using a joint venture agreement. A cell site model, of ground space area of 25m x 25m and a tower height of 60m was proposed for use by new Telecos and old in reducing mast congestion. On the average about 44.61% of capital expenditure can be saved if all the eight Telecos in the country share a common tower.