The service, which uses high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology, was announced at an impressive ceremony at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.

Speaking at the launching themed
“Go Beyond, Experience our better life today”, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Ghana, Brett Goshen said, “We are very pleased with the significant progress we have made in building an extensive 3.5G network and making it available to a large number of our valued customers”.

“We are launching our 3.5G network with more than 7 times the number of 3.5G base stations than the next competitor. In addition, we are launching with the widest and best connection in Accra, Tema and Kumasi and will be expanding aggressively to all major cities in the months to come.”

MTN currently has the largest market share in the Ghanaian mobile communications industry, and just as chief marketing officer, George Kojo Andah said in an earlier announcement in February;

this new 3.5G service is meant to enhance the overall network experience for its customers, and provide more efficient systems for the transmission of existing voice, text and data services.

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The development will pitch MTN against rival Zain, which launched its 3.5 service in December 2008 and both operators will also soon face competition from Globacom, which bought a 3G licence for Ghana in mid-2008, and is expected to start services soon.

The HSDPA based 3G service, offers several advantages over the existing circuit-switched techniques used for carrying mobile voice, and utilizes a number of techniques in parallel to increase the efficiency and reduce the latency.

This allows higher call volumes and support for new and exciting multimedia data applications such as broadband access to the internet, emailing, mobile TV, video telephony and video conferencing from a mobile phone, PDA, or laptop.

The company also plans to host a carnival and demo fair in Kumasi, on saturday, 9th may, which is meant to further expose its customers to the service.

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