Make telecom infrastructure national security concern – Tech Journalist

Founder and Managing Editor of Techfocus24, Samuel Dowuona, is calling on the government to mark all telecom infrastructure in Ghana as national security infrastructure and protect them as such.

His call comes on the heels of a campaign launched by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications dubbed the “Save Our Fibre” campaign, aimed at raising awareness about the impact of fibre cuts, particularly by real estate and road construction workers.

The Chamber noted that in the first half of 2024, telcos in Ghana spent an estimated GHS118 million repairing 5,133 fibre cuts.

The “Save Our Fibre” campaign, which is being rolled out mainly on social media, will therefore spotlight construction projects responsible for fibre cuts, the communities impacted, and the steps being taken to restore service.

In addition to naming and shaming the perpetrators of fibre cuts, the Telecoms Chamber says it is also urging the telcos to start taking legal action against them.

In an interview on Joy News Marketplace, Samuel Dowuona, said the fight against fibre cuts should go beyond just the telcos and involve national security, adding that, in this modern day of digitalisation, all digital public infrastructure (DPI) is fundamental to national development and must therefore be of concern to national security.

“In this era of digitalisation, national development infrastructure is actually digital infrastructure and no longer roads, rail, bridges, and skyscrapers. It should therefore not matter whether the digital infrastructure in question was built by the state or the private sector; so long as it is DPI, it must be protected by national security,” he argued.

“I am aware there was some initiative towards classifying all digital public infrastructure, including telecoms infrastructure, as a national security concern; that process must be expedited to ensure that persons and entities who cut telecom fibre unlawfully will know that they have the entire state security apparatus to deal with,” he said.

He noted that even though telecoms today touches the lives of Ghanaians at the same level as the other utilities—water and electricity—do, the two other utilities enjoy state protection, and the state takes action when private entities damage any water or electricity transmission infrastructure, but the same is not applied to telecoms infrastructure.

According to Samuel Dowuona, the sad part is that, when such cuts happen and the telcos take all the bashing from consumers and when they are unable to raise the money for a quick fix, the industry regulator, which is a state agency, also penalises them for failing to meet quality of service (QoS) requirements.

The multiple award-winning journalist believes it is time to take a second look at the issue of fibre cuts from a more nationalistic angle to ensure that perpetrators are held responsible from the centre and they are made to bear the liability, and where necessary, even prosecuted by the state.

“It does not even make sense that the telcos are the ones who are having to spend millions of dollars every year fixing fibre cuts, while the road contractors working for the government walk free after damaging telecoms fibre,” he said.

Samuel Dowuona suggested that any road contractor who damages telecom infrastructures should be made to pay for the cost of repairs, and that money should be deducted from source by the Roads or Finance Ministry, and private real estate developers must also face the law and pay for damages.

Source:techfocus24.com