The National Communications Authority (NCA) has informed Ghana’s three mobile network operators that financial penalties are coming for sustained poor service, days after issuing its most stringent quality of service rules since 2004, placing the industry under regulatory pressure not seen in a generation.
In a statement dated February 15, the NCA confirmed it has amended the Quality of Service (QoS) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) applicable to mobile services in Ghana, describing the new thresholds as more stringent, measurable and enforceable. The maximum allowable call drop rate has been cut from below three percent to less than one percent, and a new Call Connection Success Rate requirement compels operators to ensure that more than 95 percent of attempted calls connect successfully in over 90 percent of operational cells within any metropolitan, municipal or district area.
Sources with knowledge of the regulatory process told Techfocus24 that the NCA has separately informed MTN Ghana, Telecel Ghana and AT Ghana that fines will be issued for quality of service breaches accumulated over the past several months, periods that followed direct interventions by Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George including the granting of technology neutrality, extra spectrum allocations and the forced migration of over three million AT Ghana customers to the Telecel network.
The NCA is moving away from operator-submitted monthly reports to independent, real-time monitoring through its Communications Monitoring Centre. Mobile network operators must now audit their infrastructure to meet the new key performance indicators or face sanctions, and the NCA has signalled that infrastructure challenges such as fibre cuts and power instability will no longer be accepted as routine justifications for non-compliance.
Fibre cuts triggered by ongoing road construction projects remain MTN’s most cited operational disruption, while some property owners have ended tower-hosting contracts, creating localised coverage gaps. All three operators have investments in the pipeline to address these constraints, but none has yet come on stream.
The fines announcement raises a pointed question about what subscribers will receive. Minister George had pledged in May 2025 that approximately 40 percent of any fines imposed on non-compliant operators would be returned directly to affected consumers in the form of bonus data or call time, a shift from the historical practice of the NCA retaining penalty revenue for its own operations. It remains unclear whether the incoming sanctions will apply that framework.
Industry analysts have proposed an alternative: a bonded investment regime that would compel operators to deploy the equivalent of any fine into specific network improvement projects rather than paying cash to the regulator while separately finding capital for upgrades. Cameroon has used this model. Given that AT Ghana and Telecel Ghana carry heavier financial constraints than MTN, forcing simultaneous cash outflows and infrastructure investment could be counterproductive.
The NCA said it will intensify field measurements and performance assessments to evaluate compliance, and invited consumers to report persistent poor network experiences to aid enforcement. The Next Generation Infrastructure Company (NGIC), building a shared 4G and 5G network, is seen by analysts as the structural solution that would allow all three operators to expand capacity without each funding separate rollouts.
