Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) is stepping up public education on telecommunications masts in the Eastern Region, as concerns over tower installations intersect with a broader infrastructure problem facing the country’s telecom industry: building and protecting the physical networks required to keep people connected.
The regulator’s latest campaign follows public concerns about the construction of a telecommunications mast at the Koforidua-Kumasi Lorry Station. On September 4, the NCA said it engaged traders, transport operators and commuters at Koforidua Central Market, as well as residents and visitors in Adawso, to explain how telecom masts are regulated and why they remain important to network services. The campaign also included radio sensitisation programmes in Koforidua.
The timing is significant. Ghana’s telecom operators are under continued pressure to expand network coverage and improve quality of service, but the infrastructure required to achieve that can itself become a source of public concern.
Masts are among the most visible parts of a mobile network. They support antennas that connect mobile devices to telecommunications networks, making them essential to voice calls, mobile data and other services. According to the NCA, Ghana has more than 6,500 tower sites, including monopole or post masts, guyed towers, self-supporting towers and roof-mounted structures. The regulator says additional towers can improve network coverage, quality of service and access to bandwidth.
The challenge is that tower deployment involves more than finding a suitable location and putting up a structure.
The NCA says the deployment of communications towers is governed by regulatory, technical, structural, environmental and safety requirements. For towers exceeding 46 metres, Ghana’s Electronic Communications Act requires certification from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority that the proposed structure does not constitute a hazard to air navigation, in addition to other required permits and certificates. Towers are also expected to allow other operators to co-locate where technically feasible and commercially agreeable.
That framework reflects the changing economics of telecom infrastructure. Instead of every mobile operator building and maintaining entirely separate tower networks, infrastructure companies can provide shared passive infrastructure that operators use to deliver their services.
The NCA currently lists American Tower Company, Ghana Eaton Towers Ghana Limited and Helios Tower Ghana Managed Services Limited as authorised tower companies in Ghana.
But regulatory approval does not automatically eliminate community concerns.
The NCA has previously acknowledged that issues around health, aesthetics and safety have contributed to public resistance to telecommunications towers. Its infrastructure licensing framework says reforms were introduced partly in response to those concerns, including new guidelines for tower deployment and the licensing of companies specialising in passive telecommunications infrastructure.
The regulator’s position is that telecom infrastructure operates within accepted radio-frequency exposure limits and that tower deployment is subject to established safety requirements. During the latest Eastern Region campaign, officials encouraged members of the public to rely on credible and authoritative information when assessing concerns about masts and telecommunications services.
For the NCA, this is becoming more than a public-relations exercise. Community resistance has been identified as an actual constraint on network expansion.
In October 2025, NCA Acting Director-General Rev. Ing. Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko told members of Parliament’s Select Committee on Information and Communications that some quality-of-service challenges were linked to the inability of service providers to mount masts and towers in certain locations. He said community resistance to telecom infrastructure was affecting network expansion and service reliability and called for greater public appreciation of the role of such infrastructure in improving connectivity.
That creates a difficult trade-off for Ghana’s telecom industry. Consumers expect stronger coverage and better data services, while communities may have legitimate questions about infrastructure being installed around them. The solution is therefore unlikely to be simply building more towers. It also depends on transparency around approvals, safety requirements and the purpose of the infrastructure.
And towers are only one layer of Ghana’s connectivity infrastructure.
The country’s fibre networks have faced a separate but closely related problem: repeated damage to cables, particularly during construction activities.
According to the Ghana News Agency, Ghana recorded more than 5,600 fibre-optic cable cuts in 2024, costing the telecommunications sector an estimated $9.2 million. Road construction accounted for 20.68% of the reported cuts, while theft and vandalism accounted for 13.98%. The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications said the disruptions also resulted in significant time being spent restoring damaged infrastructure.
The figures illustrate why discussions about telecom infrastructure increasingly extend beyond mobile operators and regulators.
Fibre-optic cables form a critical part of the infrastructure supporting high-capacity data services. When they are damaged, operators have to divert resources from network expansion and improvements towards repairs. In the first half of 2024 alone, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications reported 5,133 fibre cuts and about GH¢118 million spent on repairs.
Construction activity has been a recurring issue. In September 2024, the Chamber’s CEO, Kenneth Ashigbey, said road, water and electricity works had contributed to damage to underground fibre cables and called on contractors to exercise greater care when working around existing telecom infrastructure.
The two infrastructure problems are different, but they reveal the same weakness: Ghana’s digital connectivity depends on physical systems that must be carefully planned, deployed and protected.
A telecom network is not simply the service that appears on a smartphone screen. Behind a mobile connection are towers, fibre cables, power systems, transmission equipment, data infrastructure and multiple layers of regulatory approval. A failure at any point can affect the customer’s experience.
That makes public understanding increasingly important as Ghana expands digital services, including mobile financial services, online education, digital businesses and emergency communications.
The NCA’s latest campaign in the Eastern Region is therefore best understood as part of a broader effort to reduce friction around telecom infrastructure. The regulator is trying to explain why towers are needed while reinforcing the regulatory framework governing their deployment.
For Ghana, the bigger question is how quickly the country can expand connectivity without allowing disputes over infrastructure siting, inadequate coordination during construction or damage to existing networks to undermine those gains.
The answer will require cooperation beyond telecom operators. Regulators, local authorities, construction companies, infrastructure providers and communities all have a role in determining whether Ghana can build and maintain the physical foundation of its digital economy.
As the NCA’s latest outreach shows, expanding connectivity is not only an engineering challenge. It is also a public education and infrastructure-management challenge, and increasingly, the two are becoming impossible to separate.
