Takoradi, May 17, GNA- Mr. John Appiah Boateng, Western Regional Manager of Ghana Telecom (GT), on Thursday said the company's main concern is to provide quality service to its customers. He was speaking at the celebration of this year's World Telecom Day and the launching of 2007 telephone directory at Takoradi. The Day was under the theme "Connecting the Young: The Opportunities of ICT".

Mr. Boateng said GT could sustain its present customers and attract more customers when its services are excellent. He said the company is not daunted by competition from other telecommunication service providers because every good business faces challenges.

Mr. Boateng said one of the challenges the company is facing is how to expand as well as modernizing their switches, cellsites and other equipment, which are very expensive.

He said the company is presently covering 50 per cent of the Western Region and expects to expand to all the districts in the region. He said customers have to pay their bills to make it possible for the company to buy equipment to achieve this objective.

Mr. Boateng said the expansion programme is being hampered by cable thefts especially at Tarkwa, Axim and Takoradi townships. He said Sekondi-Takoradi has 14,000 fixed and mobile lines.

Mr. Boateng said the celebration of the day is to ensure that telecommunication facilities are used to promote national growth and development and are also available and accessible at all times. He said the youth, who constitute the backbone of every nation and future workforce need to be empowered to use ICT to enhance their capabilities to promote peace, development and friendship.

Mr. Boateng said, "Ghana Telecom recognizes this challenge to provide products and services based on policies and strategies to meets the needs of its customers".