Government, through the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization, is currently rolling out the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project (GRT&DIP) Network initiatives, also known as RURALCOM.

These major policy initiatives are being spearheaded by Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).

Mr Prince Sefah, the Administrator of GIFEC said deploying 2016 Telecom Sites in remote areas across the country was to connect about 3.5 million more Ghanaians with Voice and Data Services for the first time.

He said on the RURALCOM Network, all existing mobile phone subscribers of the Licensed Mobile Network Operators (except GLO’s, who will be brought aboard in the near future), automatically connect (roam) for Voice Services, in unserved/underserved areas, otherwise not covered by their Primary Provider Network.

The Administrator said another initiative being executed was the National Roaming Policy, spearheaded by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

The National Roaming Policy allows phones to automatically connect to the Mobile Network with the best Quality of Service available in any area, regardless of which Operator one is primarily subscribed to.

“Unlike the Voice connectivity, which should not require any user intervention, however, to benefit from automatic roaming with respect to Data Services, one must enable the Data Roaming function on the phone, whether on the RURALCOM or anywhere else in the country, as the Telcos begin to roll out Roaming Services across the country now,” he said.

He said indeed, no one should restrict themselves from enabling the Data Roaming feature on their phones, since there should be no additional charges for these Roaming Services, at least, not without prior notification of consumers.

Mr Sefah said, “So, consumers should simply go ahead, enable Roaming and let the systems of the rest, using the Network of MNO with the best Quality of Service in any locality.”

He said their Rural Mobile Network Users in particular, and Mobile Network Users in general needed to enable/confirm Data Roaming (using one of the three instructions shared below, as applicable) on all their Mobile Devices, to pick up the best Network available at any location and point in time, automatically and without paying any additional charges, regardless of which Operator you are subscribed to.

He stated that it was, however, important to note that Data Roaming could be deactivated when heading to another country, to avoid unexpected roaming charges.

Firstly, (iphone) users must go to settings and select cellular, after which they can select Roaming/Data roaming to activate.

Also, for the android activation for Roaming, they had to go to settings and select Network and Internet/Connections, after which they would select mobile network and finally select Roaming/Data roaming to activate.

The Administrator said in the circumstance, where users had a (yam) phone, they could go to settings, select network type and select Roaming/Data roaming to activate.