Business News of Saturday, 7 February 2015
Source: B&FT
Minister of Communications, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, has assured the management of Surfline Telecommunications Network that government will provide legitimate support to enable them resume operations as soon as possible.
Speaking to journalists after visiting its ravaged data facility in Tema, he said the company has been offering seamless and real-time data services to clients since it began operating in the country, and that the disaster was quite unfortunate.
Surfline Telecommunications Network has been out of service since its data centre in Tema was gutted by fire on Sunday.
“Government will act swiftly to help restore the services of Surfline Telecommunications; as we all know, 4G Internet remains the best data package in the country as it is top of the range, and for that reason we will provide the legitimate support to ensure the company resumes operations within a reasonable period.
“The Ministry is much concerned about the impact from interruption of service to clients and the company, which remains a key player in facilitating the national quest to leverage ICT so as to drive socio-economic growth,” he said.
Mr. Omane-Boamah encouraged management of the company not to be discouraged by the disaster, as they can always count on support from the Communications Ministry and the National Communications Authority (NCA).
Surfline Telecommunications is a Ghanaian-owned telecommunications network providing super-fast and reliable 4G LTE services, leveraging the advanced technology of LTE to offer a new wave of connectivity to Ghanaians.
Chief Executive Officer Dr. Yaw Akoto said the company had to shut down its operations because the fire affected some critical elements of the facility.
He said the company has been impacted on all sides, but repair works are aggressively ongoing to restore services to its cherished clients as quickly as possible.
“It would be too early to quote our loss because we are still assessing the situation; but we have been obviously affected. Currently, we are working round-the-clock to restore seamless and real-time data services to our customers as soon as possible.”
Mr. Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority, said his outfit is ‘saddened’ by the situation as Surfline is a promising industry player.
He assured that the NCA will complement efforts of the sector ministry to ensure that the up-class Internet services provider will resume operations.
Meanwhile, the company says it will keep engaging its clients through social media and other electronic platforms to keep it updated about various developments.
“The damage affected the entire process chain, hence the need to shut down; nonetheless, we have engineers on the ground to restore the service. In the meantime, we will reach our clients via social media to keep them more informed about the issue,” Public Relations Manager, Edwin Amoako, said.