The National Communications Authority (NCA) wants network operators to prioritize certain critical government agencies when allocating data resources in the wake of the recent internet outages.
This recommendation was made after the Authority met with stakeholders at the NCA Tower in Accra.
The NCA made this statement in its latest update on the disruption of undersea cables.
The development has affected many services, including key installations that ensure the smooth running of the country and others on Africa’s West coast.
Earlier, the government projected that the outage may take at least five weeks to restore as regional stakeholders find ways to ameliorate the situation.
While worried users count down to this timeline, the NCA urges mobile network operators to prioritize some major state facilities in their restoration plans.
“At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that due to the limited bandwidth currently available, MNOs would review their operations and consider the possibility of prioritising and allocating more data resources to the above-mentioned and other critical services while they work with the Subsea Cable Landing Service Providers to progressively improve internet data capacity.”
These institutions include Bank of Ghana (BoG), Ghana Association of Banks (GAB), Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Central Securities Depository, Ghana Water Company Limited, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Subsea Cable Landing Service Providers, Ghana Internet Exchange (GIX), and Accra Internet Exchange (AIX).
The NCA further recommended that “the financial and utility service providers should in the medium to long term, consider hosting critical services locally to ensure continuous service delivery in the event of a major disruption such as the current situation and to leverage local internet exchanges (GIX and AIX).”
