Ghana Mobile Network Report

Introduction

The Ghanaian mobile market is comprised of several operators, of which three have their own networks: AirtelTigo, MNT and Vodafone. These three operators together have almost 100% of the mobile market share in Ghana. Thus, the network situation for these MNOs acts as a trustworthy barometer of the network situation in the country. A good knowledge of the network situation also allows the customers to perform fully informed decisions. The objective of this report is to provide a summary of the network situation in Ghana for these carriers.

This report provides a quick overview of the network situation based on the following KPIs:

• Disconnection time: time that the users of an MNO have had only emergency coverage or no coverage in average, as a percentage of time and in minutes.
• 4G and 5G time: time that the users of an MNO have had 4G and, if deployed, 5G coverage (including 5G NSA and 5G SA).
• Network status in the Common Coverage Area: an analysis of the network status, based on the signal strength and the signal quality, for the areas where all four MNOs provide coverage.
• Call technology usage: percentage of use of each call technology by MNO. This shows which technologies are mainly used by the customers.
• Mobile network latency: percentage of customers on different latency ranks. The ranks are selected according to several performance thresholds.

Summary

Data collected by Weplan Analytics shows that, as far as performance is concerned, there are a number of notable differences between the three operators.

Among Ghanaian operators, AirtelTigo is the one that have the longest daily disconnection time (around 32 minutes) and MTN is the MNO that has the least daily connection loss time (9 minutes).

It is noteworthy that in Ghana the 5G deployment has not started. Regarding 4G connectivity, AirtelTigo does not use 4G, relying mainly on 3.75G (an improved 3G network with faster connectivity). Both MTN and Vodafone have 4G as their main technology, with MTN having a 66% of coverage time in 4G and Vodafone a 54%.

Due to AirtelTigo not having 4G, it is excluded from the mobile network status analysis. MTN and Vodafone, in general, offer very similar coverage both as a common coverage area and as events, although Vodafone presents slightly better results than MTN.

Regarding the distribution of the type of calls made in Ghana, it is worth noting that VoLTE technology is not a widespread technology. Only Vodafone presents a non-negligible amount of VoLTE usage, with a mere 1% of calls being made under that technology. At least 90% of the calls made by all the users of the three operators under analysis are made through 3G (directly or via CSFB), and due to the absence of VoLTE, almost all other calls are made in 2G (directly or via CSFB).

Lastly, AirtelTigo shows a prominently good performance latency-wise, as 35% of the events have at least good latency, whereas Vodafone and MTN present mostly bad or degraded latency.

The main key figures are the following:

• Only two out of the three main MNOs (MTN and Vodafone) in Ghana provide 4G coverage to their customers. AirtelTigo relies on an improved 3G network. MTN and Vodafone offer 4G coverage 66% and 54% of the time respectively.
• In Ghana there is neither 5G network deployment, nor a relevant usage of VoLTE technology. At least 90% of the calls are made using 3G, directly or via CSFB.
• Latency is poor in most cases for all three carriers. However, AirtelTigo has 35% of events with good or excellent latency.

Methodology

In the following pages an in-depth description of each analyzed KPI can be found, including the methodology and rationale behind them. At a more general level, the following paragraph describes the data collection methodology.

Weplan Analytics collects crowdsourced data from more than 200 million devices in 31 countries. For this analysis, 326 million measurements collected between December 2022 and February 2023 were used. The following map shows the density of measurements taken throughout the country by Weplan Analytics.

As these MNOs serve their networks to other parties (such as VMNOs, due to roaming agreements or as part of emergency coverage) the following criteria to analyze each MNO were followed:

• AirtelTigo has been filtered by the SIM AIRTELTIGO.
• MTN has been filtered by the SIM MTN.
• Vodafone has been filtered by the SIM VODAFONE.

More details about the methodology can be found here.

Connectivity

Connectivity: Disconnection time

The following table and graphic show the disconnection time as the average daily minutes that a MNO has experienced disconnection. Disconnection time includes moments when a customer has no coverage at all (for example in underground parkings, inside elevators, so far away from a site that connection is not possible…) or moments when a customer only has emergency coverage, that is, the ability to perform only emergency calls. This disconnected time may (and, in most cases, will) be discontinuous, and is the sum of all disconnections experienced by users.

Among Ghanaian operators, AirtelTigo is the one with the longest disconnection time compared to its competitors, with 32 minutes of disconnection per day. MTN is the operator with the best result with 9 minutes of disconnection, and Vodafone reaches 17 daily minutes of disconnection. Although this is the added time for all customers, it is a great indicator of the coverage capability of each MNO.

Connectivity: 4G and 5G time

With the advent of the newer 5G technology older technologies such as 2G and 3G are being turned off to free frequencies. Thus, guaranteeing at least a proper 4G coverage is one of the main goals of MNOs, and for those who already have 4G sorted out, the focus turns to 5G.

However, no carrier in Ghana has started 5G deployment, and one of the main operators, AirtelTigo, does not even have 4G. Thus, only 4G will be considered in this section.

Regarding 4G connectivity, MTN provides 4G coverage 66% of the time, whereas Vodafone provides 4G coverage 54% of the time.

4G network status

There are two main network performance indicators: signal strength and signal quality. Each technology has its own measurements, but five great categories can be established:

• Very Good: The performance of all network usages will be excellent.
• Good: The performance of all network usages may present occasional difficulties but is overall good.
• Fair: Most network-dependent usages (such as calls or data usage) will have a decent or better performance.
• Degraded: Network usage will be unstable and unreliable but allows for basic usage such as calls with acceptable quality and very slow data transfer.
• Very Degraded: Network usage different from emergency calls is near impossible.

There are two ways to establish this value: looking at the percentage of area and looking at the percentage of measurements on each category. Most measurements take place in urban areas, where coverage is better, but in most countries most of the area is not urban, so the percentage of area with a problematic network situation may be different to the percentage of measurements with a problematic network situation. To ensure a fair comparison between carriers only areas where all MNOs have data have been analyzed, and only 4G has been taken into account. It should be noted that AirtelTigo does not have 4G coverage, so it will not be taken into account in the analysis of this KPI.

The overall network situation in the common coverage area of the analyzed operators (MTN and Vodafone) in Ghana, area-wise, is very similar, with 77% of the area having a fair or better network situation. However, Vodafone presents the best result with 38% of the area with good or better coverage. In the case of MTN this percentage rounds 26% of the area.

Measurement-wise the situation is very similar, with 69% of the measurements being fair or better for MTN and 75% of the measurements being fair or better for Vodafone. Once again, Vodafone is also the operator with the best results, with 44% of its measurements being good or better. For MTN this percentage is reduced to 39% of the measurements.

Call type percentage

Although 2G and 3G are capable of data usage, the advent of 4G and more recently 5G technologies have relegated them to mostly call usage. The absence of 4G-based call technology ensured that 2G and 3G, as the only way to make a phone call, were still relevant. The development of VoLTE (Voice over LTE) calls during the 2010s marked the beginning of the end for these legacy technologies in most of the world. However, in countries such as Ghana, where the mobile market has developed later, VoLTE is still far in the horizon and 2G and 3G are very relevant technologies.

However, not all customers can benefit from VoLTE calls. For a customer to use this technology several conditions must be met:

1. Their MNO must provide 4G and VoLTE.
2. They must have a phone capable of performing VoLTE calls.
3. They must have a phone rate that includes VoLTE calls.
4. Their phone must be homologated by the MNO and the manufacturer to perform VoLTE calls.

The fourth condition means that a customer, without changing their phone, can have VoLTE with one MNO but lack it with a different MNO. When a customer connected to 4G without VoLTE capabilities (for any reason) tries to perform a call, a hand-off process to the 2G or 3G network takes place. This process, depending on the method applied, is called CSFB (the most common one) or SRVCC. Aside from those technologies, VoWiFi (Voice over Wi-Fi) is also used when a Wi-Fi network is available.

As stated before, VoLTE is still irrelevant in Ghana, with Vodafone being the only carrier with a non-negligible amount of VoLTE usage, just a 1%. At least 90% of the calls made by the users of the three carriers are made through 3G (either directly or through CSFB). In the case of MTN, this percentage goes up to 95% of the calls. Most other calls are made using 2G (either directly or through CSFB). The MNO that makes the most 2G calls is AirtelTigo (10%), followed by Vodafone (9%) and, finally, MTN (5%).

Latency status

Latency is the measurement of how much time it takes for the information to be transmitted between the user and the network. A lower latency means a faster, smoother network experience, whereas a higher latency means that the network experience will not be as good, or even unusable. This makes latency a good indicator of user experience. We have divided latency in four great groups:

• Excellent latency translates to a very smooth user experience, even with the most data-intensive usage, such as gaming or 4K streaming.
• Good latency translates to a good user experience, although gaming may not be as fluid and 4K may present occasional problems.
• Degraded latency translates to a mediocre user experience. Gaming and 4K are either uncomfortable or impossible, videochat may present noticeable lag and messaging with multimedia may take a long time to load.
• Bad latency translates to an essentially unusable network. Only the lightest usage, such as sending messages without multimedia, works decently.

Vodafone and MTN have mostly bad or degraded latency. AirtelTigo stands out with 19% of its measurements having a good latency, and 16% of its measurements having excellent latency.