Samuel Dowuona, the Managing Director of TechGh24.com, has expressed concerns over the regulator’s financial motivations in the wake of a 5G licensing agreement awarded to NextGen Infraco.
NextGen Infraco was formed just a week before the approval of the contract.
During an interview with Bernard Avle on ChannelOne TV’s The Point of View, Mr. Dowuona voiced his apprehension that the regulator seems to be solely focused on companies with substantial financial resources, thereby neglecting the overall growth of the market.
He highlighted the absence of a competitive market in the 5G deal.
“I also made a point in my article that we have more or less in the market, a monster. The last time we had the show I told you that the regulator is to be blamed. The regulator thinks to follow the money now, instead of doing what will make the entire market grow together.
“They follow the money, and whoever has the money, they just follow the money and that is where we have landed now. If we still go back to following money, it’s going to be a bit worrisome.
“Even if it means creating another monster, just to keep one monster in check, over a certain period of time, then we can talk about how we can even restructure this wholesale thing.”
He questioned the decision not to divide the contract among multiple players to prevent a single company from monopolizing the market.
He expressed concern that market imbalances will persist if the regulator continues to repeat past errors.
“We can’t say that because others failed to invest, and so they are now far behind, we should also sit down and allow the market to run in such a way that one day we end up in a monopoly, we can’t do that. Once there’s Significant Market Power (SMP) in the market, we also need to begin to be doing things in a certain way to just acknowledge that there’s a SMP.
“We can’t just go ahead and auction licenses when we know very well that we’re going to end up in a situation where only one player is going to be buying the license…Like every player starting to roll out the 5G at the same time.
“The small wing is important, it means we’re taking steps to correct the market imbalances…So long as we have SMP in the market, we shouldn’t be doing things we did in the past, otherwise, we’re not going to correct the market imbalances.
“This time it’s MTN, but it could have been anybody…This is not intended to go at a particular player. There’s an SMP in the market let’s just acknowledge that.”
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The post Regulator’s financial focus threatens competitive 5G market – Dowuona appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana.
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