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Johannesburg - Technology giant Microsoft has launched Africa’s first commercial deployment of television white spaces internet broadband in Ghana.
TV white spaces technology uses unused portions of spectrum in frequency bands to provide wireless broadband services.
Advantages of the technology include wide area coverage and low cost internet.
To date, Microsoft has been piloting TV white spaces broadband in countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana.
But Ghana is the continent’s first nation to roll-out a commercial deployment of the broadband tech as Microsoft has partnered with connectivity firm Spectra Wireless to target university students with fast internet.
As part of the commercial service, university students can purchase high-speed internet bundles, use offerings such as Microsoft Office 365 and apply for zero-interest loans in partnership with UT Bank to purchase internet-enabled Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell and HP devices.
The cheapest data packages, which can be purchased via www.djungle.com, start at two Ghana cedi per day (R6.83) and provide 24 hour access to the internet.
“We are breaking away from the standard way of selling internet services in Africa,” said Sam Darko, Country Leader of Spectra Wireless, in a statement.
“Even in advance of launching the commercial service, we have over 5 800 unique client devices registered on our network, out of a student population in Koforidua of 8 500, so the interest level already has been high. We look forward to educating more students and offering them affordable devices,” added Darko.Ghana connectivity
The West African nation, which has a population of just over 25 million, has one of Africa’s highest mobile and internet usage rates.
According to Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA), Ghana had 29.9 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of October 2014.
Meanwhile, the country had 15.6 million mobile data subscribers at the end of October 2014, according to the NCA.
