A communication expert has commended Parliament for lifting the telecommunications operator exclusivity status in Ghana.

The expert, Mr Bing Aidoo explained that the period of exclusivity created a lot of inefficiencies that denied the Ghanaian consumer full access to acceptable technology in an industry replete with changing technologies. Parliament on Friday, March 28, 2003 allowed LI 1719 to pass without objection, completing ending telecommunication operator exclusivity status in the country.

This means that the market is now open to other telecommunications operators, which hitherto only Ghana Telecom and Western Telesystems Company Limited (Westel) had the exclusivity status.

Mr Aidoo, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of One Dial Communications, Ghana said “The economic ills in a particular market is a recipe for inefficiencies demonstrated by poor customer service, prices picked from the hat, shortages, poor planning and administrative structures fraught with layers of authority. “These inefficiencies are decried by the capital markets and will never attract private capital,” he said. He noted that another benefit to Ghanaian lifting all limitations of entry into the telecommunication industry at all levels was that it would bring the true benefit of supply and demand into the industry. “It will also feature prominently the most famous benefit to any private industry competition, risk participation and risk sharing among the players in the market place.

The benefit to the industry will include the set up of all sizes of telecommunication companies and related companies. “These new corporate set-ups may not necessarily come form Ghanaians; however Ghanaians stand to benefit a great deal in capital inflows, supply of manpower and transfer of technology,” he said.

He said today, telephone cost in the United States is the cheapest in the world, because she managed to do away with market exclusivity in the late 1970s.