29 April 2019

Kasapa Telecoms, operator of 028 numbers under the Expresso Telecom brand, has had its mobile cellular licence revoked, Ghana’s regulator the National Communications Authority (NCA) said.

The NCA, which revoked the licence March 15th 2018, is advising customers with an 028 prefix to port to other networks if they want to keep their current numbers.

Expresso was first given notice of the NCA’s intention to terminate the licence before the act was subsequently carried out last year.

The NCA said the revocation was carried out pursuant to Section 13 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775) and cited a number of reasons for its decision.

They include a default of payment of annual regulatory fees since 2014, inability to offer licensed services and coverage obligations since 2014, and engagement in anticompetitive practices by terminating/transiting international traffic as domestic traffic on other networks (SIMBOX fraud).

The NCA also said the operator failed to settle fees for usage of microwave frequencies and did not meet financial obligations to both fellow operators and to Porting XS, the mobile number portability (MNP) service provider.

It was further claimed that Expresso also switched off its network without due notice to the regulator, so as far as the NCA was concerned, Expresso did not have any subscription since the network was no longer in operation.

“Due to the existence of MNP, Kasapa subscribers have the choice to port their 028 numbers to networks of their choice,” it said.

The NCA disclosed that a portion of the spectrum of Kasapa, which is good for 4G LTE, will be re-allocated for use considering economic and broader social value.