The ongoing retrenchment exercise at AirtelTigo, following the merger of the two companies which came to a standstill over the alleged use of a wrong formula to calculate packages, has been corrected and resolved.

The first batch of senior staff who received notice of their retrenchment packages rejected it outright, accusing management of using a strange formula that shortchanged workers significantly.

Following the rejection, a group of workers, calling themselves the Concerned AirtelTigo Workers, put out a write up accusing management of several things, including side-stepping the provisions of a workers handbook and an agreed formula.

CEO of Airtel Tigo - Roshi Motman

The CEO of AirtelTigo, Roshi Motman, met the Network of Communication Reporters (NCR) last week and assured the journalists that she was taking a closer look at the handbook and possibly work with it, following the initial agitations.

She promised her commitment to ensuring that deserving workers get matching positions in the merged company, while those who have to leave are given proper career counseling and requisite retrenchment packages.

Following these comments from Roshi, there has been renewed excitement with staff and some top management persons confirming currently management is using the handbook plus a bit more exciting packages added.

Mobility Centre

CEO Roshi Motman stated that the company has established a special Mobility Centre, where all workers are going through a process to either be employed on merit or let go with a deserving retrenchment package.

The Mobility Centre is manned by experts from Deloitte and Touch, who take workers through hours of question and answer period, plus one-on-one counselling sessions to determine how each person can fit into the roles available in the merged company or move on smoothly.

So far, over 100 workers have been through the Mobility Centre and just a few of them have been affected by redundancy.

Management explained that the process started from the senior level staff it is gradually trickling down through the ranks so that once the leaders of each department are confirmed, they can now help in the selection of the team they will work with.

“We have a very skilled human resource from both Airtel and Tigo so we are taking our time to ensure that we extract the best of the best and that is why the process seems to be taking time,” she said.

Way forward

On the way forward for the merged company, Roshi Motman said they are currently working on merging the customer shops, cell sites and data centres in a strategic fashion that would provide customers with the best experience on the network.

She is confident that with the combination of Airtel’s strength in intra-city fibre spread and Tigo’s strength in the inter-city fibre network, the merged entity will be a force to recon with in the industry.

Recapitalisation

“This merger is good for this country because soon we will be recapitalizing the company to bring a boost in the economy and also ensure some decent competition that inures to the benefits of consumers in the long-run,” she said.

She noted that examples around the world show that where just a few telcos operate in a country, there is value for each of them, so she trusts that the merger would, in the long run, create value for all industry players and stakeholders.

Roshi Motman said the company would also be combining the strengths of Airtel Money and Tigo Cash on the mobile money market to provide customers with the best of service backed by enough liquidity in the hands of merchants.

“We will pay a great deal of attention to making all our processes very easy for customers so that their experience on our network will be the best one,” she said.

AirtelTigo has 18 months to complete the merger at all levels, and management says even when the merger is completed they will still maintain the two sets of number blocks of 026/056 and 027/057.

Source: Myjoyonline

Acting Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Joe Anokye, has been confirmed as the Director-General of the Authority by the Public Services Commission.This confirmation comes almost a year after President Akufo-Addo appointed him as acting Director-General of the NCA.

Since January 2017, when Joe Anokye started work in an acting capacity with the NCA, he has led the Authority to enforce and enact some key regulatory decisions. In that period, the NCA has strengthened its mandate with key spectrum audits for TV and radio which have led to increase in compliance by players in the industry.

In addition to supervising the first of a kind mobile network operator (MNO) merger in the history of the regulator and between two (2) key operators (Airtel Ghana Limited and Millicom – Tigo Ghana Limited), the Authority has also constituted six (6) teams called Service Monitoring Owners to ensure regulatory compliance of the 26 services it regulates.

Other achievements over the year include supporting government’s agenda by enabling the MNOs deploy UMTS-900 in unserved and underserved communities to improve data penetration. The NCA has also installed a Network Monitoring System (NMS) that gives full visibility of the core networks of Mobile Network Operators (MNO), as well as the installation of Nemo Invex Equipment to measure all the requisite KPIs pertaining to CDMA, voice quality and LTE. There is also now a complete database on all the network infrastructure of telecom services.

Mr. Anokye is a Telecommunications Executive well vested in a wide range of Telecommunication Management, Telecommunication Networks and Cyber Security platforms in both public and private sector. He has over twenty-two (22) years hands-on technical and management experience across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. From January 1997 to February 2016, Mr. Anokye worked on several contracts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland – USA as a Senior Telecommunications Consultant, including supervising NASA’s Global Mission Telecommunication Wide Area Network (WAN) technical team.

A talented and accomplished Technology Executive, Mr. Anokye has a proven record in leading technology transformation, improvement initiatives and aligning technology services with business objectives. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Ghana’s communication industry and will be instrumental in efforts to expand Ghana’s communication network to support our developmental objectives or local and international organisations, including the Volta River Authority, Ashanti Goldfields, VOIP International Gateway for NITEL ‐ Nigeria, Sun Solaris installation & configuration for Ghana Telecom, GCB and Ministry of Finance and VOIP gateway for Westel (now Airtel). He has also been instrumental in the initiation and development of Internet Services in Ghana, Togo, Nigeria and Gambia.

Source: NCA

Bango has partnered with MTN Ghana to enable its subscribers to pay for content and services from Google Play with one click, charging the cost to their MTN Mobile Money account. MTN Mobile Money is an online wallet that customers can use to send and receive money, pay bills, school fees, insurance, salaries, top up MTN airtime and pay for other goods and services.

Bango said the new functionality was a “major step in broadening inclusivity for internet users in the region”.It added MTN customers without access to a credit or debit card would be able to access apps, games and music thanks to the deal.

Subscribers on the MTN Ghana network can select the 'Pay with Mobile Money' option in Google Play, charging the cost of apps, games, music, films and other services to their MTN Mobile Money wallet. This eliminates the need for a credit or debit card to purchase content.

Noel Kojo-Ganson, acting CMO of MTN Ghana, said: “The quest for digital content in the world and in our country today is enormous, but a convenient mode of payment has always been a bane to access”. He added the deal would allow its customers to “experience the bold new digital world.”

MTN Ghana said subscribers who would otherwise have no access to the digital economy, can now use the Google Play app store.

GSMA Intelligence figures for Q3 2017 placed MTN as the largest wireless operator by connections in Ghana, with a 47 per cent market share. Although recent statistics on the company’s mobile money share are unavailable, in a 2017 Bank of Ghana study, MTN was cited as having the largest network of mobile money agents in the country.

Tigo, Airtel and Vodafone’s Ghana units offer rival money services in the country.

Source: Telecomspaper

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications with Engineers of the Mobile Operators, yesterday visited the Eastern Region to engage in planned site visits with the Department of Urban Roads (DUR).

The DUR this year is constructing and upgrading roads in over 22 communities within major cities and towns in the Eastern Region such as Apedwa, Kyebi, Nsawam, Suhum, New Juaben, Denchembour and many others.

Road Constructions in Ghana, remain 65% of the time according to Operator Incident Reports; the major cause of damage to Telecommunications Infrastructure. Such damage affects the consumer adversely, depriving them of critical access to connectivity which hampers security and affects productivity of our people.

The Telecoms Chamber is confident such planned site visits will enhance collaboration between the Mobile Operators and the Roads Agencies to enable parties align on where existing infrastructure is deployed to ensure minimal issues arise during the Road Construction projects.

Another major advantage of these collaborations will enable Mobile Operators to make provision for ducts to be laid in communities where roads are being constructed. Such proactive measures will prevent the roads from being “cut” in the future when operators have a compelling case to provide data services in the communities.

Source: Communications Desk

The ongoing retrenchment exercise at AirtelTigo, following the merger of the two companies which came to a standstill over the alleged use of a wrong formula to calculate packages, has been corrected and resolved.

The first batch of senior staff who received notice of their retrenchment packages rejected it outright, accusing management of using a strange formula that shortchanged workers significantly.

Following the rejection, a group of workers, calling themselves the Concerned AirtelTigo Workers, put out a write up accusing management of several things, including side-stepping the provisions of a workers handbook and an agreed formula.

CEO of Airtel Tigo - Roshi Motman

The CEO of AirtelTigo, Roshi Motman, met the Network of Communication Reporters (NCR) last week and assured the journalists that she was taking a closer look at the handbook and possibly work with it, following the initial agitations.

She promised her commitment to ensuring that deserving workers get matching positions in the merged company, while those who have to leave are given proper career counseling and requisite retrenchment packages.

Following these comments from Roshi, there has been renewed excitement with staff and some top management persons confirming currently management is using the handbook plus a bit more exciting packages added.

Mobility Centre

CEO Roshi Motman stated that the company has established a special Mobility Centre, where all workers are going through a process to either be employed on merit or let go with a deserving retrenchment package.

The Mobility Centre is manned by experts from Deloitte and Touch, who take workers through hours of question and answer period, plus one-on-one counselling sessions to determine how each person can fit into the roles available in the merged company or move on smoothly.

So far, over 100 workers have been through the Mobility Centre and just a few of them have been affected by redundancy.

Management explained that the process started from the senior level staff it is gradually trickling down through the ranks so that once the leaders of each department are confirmed, they can now help in the selection of the team they will work with.

“We have a very skilled human resource from both Airtel and Tigo so we are taking our time to ensure that we extract the best of the best and that is why the process seems to be taking time,” she said.

Way forward

On the way forward for the merged company, Roshi Motman said they are currently working on merging the customer shops, cell sites and data centres in a strategic fashion that would provide customers with the best experience on the network.

She is confident that with the combination of Airtel’s strength in intra-city fibre spread and Tigo’s strength in the inter-city fibre network, the merged entity will be a force to recon with in the industry.

Recapitalisation

“This merger is good for this country because soon we will be recapitalizing the company to bring a boost in the economy and also ensure some decent competition that inures to the benefits of consumers in the long-run,” she said.

She noted that examples around the world show that where just a few telcos operate in a country, there is value for each of them, so she trusts that the merger would, in the long run, create value for all industry players and stakeholders.

Roshi Motman said the company would also be combining the strengths of Airtel Money and Tigo Cash on the mobile money market to provide customers with the best of service backed by enough liquidity in the hands of merchants.

“We will pay a great deal of attention to making all our processes very easy for customers so that their experience on our network will be the best one,” she said.

AirtelTigo has 18 months to complete the merger at all levels, and management says even when the merger is completed they will still maintain the two sets of number blocks of 026/056 and 027/057.

Source: Myjoyonline

Acting Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Joe Anokye, has been confirmed as the Director-General of the Authority by the Public Services Commission.This confirmation comes almost a year after President Akufo-Addo appointed him as acting Director-General of the NCA.

Since January 2017, when Joe Anokye started work in an acting capacity with the NCA, he has led the Authority to enforce and enact some key regulatory decisions. In that period, the NCA has strengthened its mandate with key spectrum audits for TV and radio which have led to increase in compliance by players in the industry.

In addition to supervising the first of a kind mobile network operator (MNO) merger in the history of the regulator and between two (2) key operators (Airtel Ghana Limited and Millicom – Tigo Ghana Limited), the Authority has also constituted six (6) teams called Service Monitoring Owners to ensure regulatory compliance of the 26 services it regulates.

Other achievements over the year include supporting government’s agenda by enabling the MNOs deploy UMTS-900 in unserved and underserved communities to improve data penetration. The NCA has also installed a Network Monitoring System (NMS) that gives full visibility of the core networks of Mobile Network Operators (MNO), as well as the installation of Nemo Invex Equipment to measure all the requisite KPIs pertaining to CDMA, voice quality and LTE. There is also now a complete database on all the network infrastructure of telecom services.

Mr. Anokye is a Telecommunications Executive well vested in a wide range of Telecommunication Management, Telecommunication Networks and Cyber Security platforms in both public and private sector. He has over twenty-two (22) years hands-on technical and management experience across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. From January 1997 to February 2016, Mr. Anokye worked on several contracts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland – USA as a Senior Telecommunications Consultant, including supervising NASA’s Global Mission Telecommunication Wide Area Network (WAN) technical team.

A talented and accomplished Technology Executive, Mr. Anokye has a proven record in leading technology transformation, improvement initiatives and aligning technology services with business objectives. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Ghana’s communication industry and will be instrumental in efforts to expand Ghana’s communication network to support our developmental objectives or local and international organisations, including the Volta River Authority, Ashanti Goldfields, VOIP International Gateway for NITEL ‐ Nigeria, Sun Solaris installation & configuration for Ghana Telecom, GCB and Ministry of Finance and VOIP gateway for Westel (now Airtel). He has also been instrumental in the initiation and development of Internet Services in Ghana, Togo, Nigeria and Gambia.

Source: NCA

Bango has partnered with MTN Ghana to enable its subscribers to pay for content and services from Google Play with one click, charging the cost to their MTN Mobile Money account. MTN Mobile Money is an online wallet that customers can use to send and receive money, pay bills, school fees, insurance, salaries, top up MTN airtime and pay for other goods and services.

Bango said the new functionality was a “major step in broadening inclusivity for internet users in the region”.It added MTN customers without access to a credit or debit card would be able to access apps, games and music thanks to the deal.

Subscribers on the MTN Ghana network can select the 'Pay with Mobile Money' option in Google Play, charging the cost of apps, games, music, films and other services to their MTN Mobile Money wallet. This eliminates the need for a credit or debit card to purchase content.

Noel Kojo-Ganson, acting CMO of MTN Ghana, said: “The quest for digital content in the world and in our country today is enormous, but a convenient mode of payment has always been a bane to access”. He added the deal would allow its customers to “experience the bold new digital world.”

MTN Ghana said subscribers who would otherwise have no access to the digital economy, can now use the Google Play app store.

GSMA Intelligence figures for Q3 2017 placed MTN as the largest wireless operator by connections in Ghana, with a 47 per cent market share. Although recent statistics on the company’s mobile money share are unavailable, in a 2017 Bank of Ghana study, MTN was cited as having the largest network of mobile money agents in the country.

Tigo, Airtel and Vodafone’s Ghana units offer rival money services in the country.

Source: Telecomspaper

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications with Engineers of the Mobile Operators, yesterday visited the Eastern Region to engage in planned site visits with the Department of Urban Roads (DUR).

The DUR this year is constructing and upgrading roads in over 22 communities within major cities and towns in the Eastern Region such as Apedwa, Kyebi, Nsawam, Suhum, New Juaben, Denchembour and many others.

Road Constructions in Ghana, remain 65% of the time according to Operator Incident Reports; the major cause of damage to Telecommunications Infrastructure. Such damage affects the consumer adversely, depriving them of critical access to connectivity which hampers security and affects productivity of our people.

The Telecoms Chamber is confident such planned site visits will enhance collaboration between the Mobile Operators and the Roads Agencies to enable parties align on where existing infrastructure is deployed to ensure minimal issues arise during the Road Construction projects.

Another major advantage of these collaborations will enable Mobile Operators to make provision for ducts to be laid in communities where roads are being constructed. Such proactive measures will prevent the roads from being “cut” in the future when operators have a compelling case to provide data services in the communities.

Source: Communications Desk

The ongoing retrenchment exercise at AirtelTigo, following the merger of the two companies which came to a standstill over the alleged use of a wrong formula to calculate packages, has been corrected and resolved.

The first batch of senior staff who received notice of their retrenchment packages rejected it outright, accusing management of using a strange formula that shortchanged workers significantly.

Following the rejection, a group of workers, calling themselves the Concerned AirtelTigo Workers, put out a write up accusing management of several things, including side-stepping the provisions of a workers handbook and an agreed formula.

CEO of Airtel Tigo - Roshi Motman

The CEO of AirtelTigo, Roshi Motman, met the Network of Communication Reporters (NCR) last week and assured the journalists that she was taking a closer look at the handbook and possibly work with it, following the initial agitations.

She promised her commitment to ensuring that deserving workers get matching positions in the merged company, while those who have to leave are given proper career counseling and requisite retrenchment packages.

Following these comments from Roshi, there has been renewed excitement with staff and some top management persons confirming currently management is using the handbook plus a bit more exciting packages added.

Mobility Centre

CEO Roshi Motman stated that the company has established a special Mobility Centre, where all workers are going through a process to either be employed on merit or let go with a deserving retrenchment package.

The Mobility Centre is manned by experts from Deloitte and Touch, who take workers through hours of question and answer period, plus one-on-one counselling sessions to determine how each person can fit into the roles available in the merged company or move on smoothly.

So far, over 100 workers have been through the Mobility Centre and just a few of them have been affected by redundancy.

Management explained that the process started from the senior level staff it is gradually trickling down through the ranks so that once the leaders of each department are confirmed, they can now help in the selection of the team they will work with.

“We have a very skilled human resource from both Airtel and Tigo so we are taking our time to ensure that we extract the best of the best and that is why the process seems to be taking time,” she said.

Way forward

On the way forward for the merged company, Roshi Motman said they are currently working on merging the customer shops, cell sites and data centres in a strategic fashion that would provide customers with the best experience on the network.

She is confident that with the combination of Airtel’s strength in intra-city fibre spread and Tigo’s strength in the inter-city fibre network, the merged entity will be a force to recon with in the industry.

Recapitalisation

“This merger is good for this country because soon we will be recapitalizing the company to bring a boost in the economy and also ensure some decent competition that inures to the benefits of consumers in the long-run,” she said.

She noted that examples around the world show that where just a few telcos operate in a country, there is value for each of them, so she trusts that the merger would, in the long run, create value for all industry players and stakeholders.

Roshi Motman said the company would also be combining the strengths of Airtel Money and Tigo Cash on the mobile money market to provide customers with the best of service backed by enough liquidity in the hands of merchants.

“We will pay a great deal of attention to making all our processes very easy for customers so that their experience on our network will be the best one,” she said.

AirtelTigo has 18 months to complete the merger at all levels, and management says even when the merger is completed they will still maintain the two sets of number blocks of 026/056 and 027/057.

Source: Myjoyonline

Acting Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Joe Anokye, has been confirmed as the Director-General of the Authority by the Public Services Commission.This confirmation comes almost a year after President Akufo-Addo appointed him as acting Director-General of the NCA.

Since January 2017, when Joe Anokye started work in an acting capacity with the NCA, he has led the Authority to enforce and enact some key regulatory decisions. In that period, the NCA has strengthened its mandate with key spectrum audits for TV and radio which have led to increase in compliance by players in the industry.

In addition to supervising the first of a kind mobile network operator (MNO) merger in the history of the regulator and between two (2) key operators (Airtel Ghana Limited and Millicom – Tigo Ghana Limited), the Authority has also constituted six (6) teams called Service Monitoring Owners to ensure regulatory compliance of the 26 services it regulates.

Other achievements over the year include supporting government’s agenda by enabling the MNOs deploy UMTS-900 in unserved and underserved communities to improve data penetration. The NCA has also installed a Network Monitoring System (NMS) that gives full visibility of the core networks of Mobile Network Operators (MNO), as well as the installation of Nemo Invex Equipment to measure all the requisite KPIs pertaining to CDMA, voice quality and LTE. There is also now a complete database on all the network infrastructure of telecom services.

Mr. Anokye is a Telecommunications Executive well vested in a wide range of Telecommunication Management, Telecommunication Networks and Cyber Security platforms in both public and private sector. He has over twenty-two (22) years hands-on technical and management experience across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. From January 1997 to February 2016, Mr. Anokye worked on several contracts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland – USA as a Senior Telecommunications Consultant, including supervising NASA’s Global Mission Telecommunication Wide Area Network (WAN) technical team.

A talented and accomplished Technology Executive, Mr. Anokye has a proven record in leading technology transformation, improvement initiatives and aligning technology services with business objectives. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Ghana’s communication industry and will be instrumental in efforts to expand Ghana’s communication network to support our developmental objectives or local and international organisations, including the Volta River Authority, Ashanti Goldfields, VOIP International Gateway for NITEL ‐ Nigeria, Sun Solaris installation & configuration for Ghana Telecom, GCB and Ministry of Finance and VOIP gateway for Westel (now Airtel). He has also been instrumental in the initiation and development of Internet Services in Ghana, Togo, Nigeria and Gambia.

Source: NCA

Bango has partnered with MTN Ghana to enable its subscribers to pay for content and services from Google Play with one click, charging the cost to their MTN Mobile Money account. MTN Mobile Money is an online wallet that customers can use to send and receive money, pay bills, school fees, insurance, salaries, top up MTN airtime and pay for other goods and services.

Bango said the new functionality was a “major step in broadening inclusivity for internet users in the region”.It added MTN customers without access to a credit or debit card would be able to access apps, games and music thanks to the deal.

Subscribers on the MTN Ghana network can select the 'Pay with Mobile Money' option in Google Play, charging the cost of apps, games, music, films and other services to their MTN Mobile Money wallet. This eliminates the need for a credit or debit card to purchase content.

Noel Kojo-Ganson, acting CMO of MTN Ghana, said: “The quest for digital content in the world and in our country today is enormous, but a convenient mode of payment has always been a bane to access”. He added the deal would allow its customers to “experience the bold new digital world.”

MTN Ghana said subscribers who would otherwise have no access to the digital economy, can now use the Google Play app store.

GSMA Intelligence figures for Q3 2017 placed MTN as the largest wireless operator by connections in Ghana, with a 47 per cent market share. Although recent statistics on the company’s mobile money share are unavailable, in a 2017 Bank of Ghana study, MTN was cited as having the largest network of mobile money agents in the country.

Tigo, Airtel and Vodafone’s Ghana units offer rival money services in the country.

Source: Telecomspaper

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications with Engineers of the Mobile Operators, yesterday visited the Eastern Region to engage in planned site visits with the Department of Urban Roads (DUR).

The DUR this year is constructing and upgrading roads in over 22 communities within major cities and towns in the Eastern Region such as Apedwa, Kyebi, Nsawam, Suhum, New Juaben, Denchembour and many others.

Road Constructions in Ghana, remain 65% of the time according to Operator Incident Reports; the major cause of damage to Telecommunications Infrastructure. Such damage affects the consumer adversely, depriving them of critical access to connectivity which hampers security and affects productivity of our people.

The Telecoms Chamber is confident such planned site visits will enhance collaboration between the Mobile Operators and the Roads Agencies to enable parties align on where existing infrastructure is deployed to ensure minimal issues arise during the Road Construction projects.

Another major advantage of these collaborations will enable Mobile Operators to make provision for ducts to be laid in communities where roads are being constructed. Such proactive measures will prevent the roads from being “cut” in the future when operators have a compelling case to provide data services in the communities.

Source: Communications Desk