GISPA elects new officers, plans big for 2011

The Ghana Internet Services Providers Association (GISPA) has elected new set of executive to steer its affairs in the coming years with plans to boost broadband economy in the country.

Arising from its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Accra recently, GISPA elected a new board headed by Mr. Ernest Brown (BBH) as President. The new board comprised of Mr. Alexander Sulzberger (Ecoband), Mr. Stanley Tsekpo (Netplux), Mr. Gregory Eid (TeledataICT) and Mr. Roger Baah (GCNet) members.

GISPA Secretary, Mr. Eric Osiakwan said, the new exco promises to focus “Broadband Abundance – making broadband affordable and accessible.”

The new president, Mr. Brown was quoted in his acceptance speech, as saying that Mr. Richard Hlomador-led outgoing board steered the industry to make Ghana aware of the need to place economic significance on broadband.

He reiterated commitment on taking forward the association’s quest to realize the aforementioned goal through the reduction of prices and making broadband abundant.

The new board has applied itself to securing capacity for the Google Global Cache (GGC), which
is at the Ghana Internet eXchange (GIX located at the Kofi Annan Centre) to ensure that it is up and running effectively. The GGC, which is a collaboration with Google Inc, would ensure that all Google related traffic (like search) to be stored locally on that server so that subsequent recipients would get it fast and cheaper.

Efforts, he said, are underway to ensure that GISPA members come together and collectively purchase international wholesale capacity which would allow the unit cost to members to be cheaper, hence members would then in turn transfer such savings to the consumer.

“This is to build up on efforts by the old board that lead to reduction in broadband prices and or increase in capacity in some cases,” he said.

The board also plans to effectively engage with the new leadership at the National Communications Authority (NCA) who have being very receptive to ensure a level playing field in the industry. A meeting has been held and a position paper submitted to that effect.

The Ghana Internet Services Providers Association (GISPA, www.gispa.org.gh) is a non-profit trade corporation that represents the interest of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in Ghana.
Our focus is to grow the Internet locally through lobbying for the right policies, negotiating transparent and independent regulatory frameworks and building networks to enhance easy, reliable and affordable communication to the consumer.

GISPA is currently made up of NCS, Internet Ghana, Africa Online, IDN, BusyInternet, Netplux, K-Net, BroadBand Home, Easy-Net (MTN), Ecoband, NetAfrique, Gateway Communications,
Discoverytel, Africanus, TeledataICT, ComsysGhana, iBurstAfrica, Internet Solutions, UCOM, GCNet, Expresso Telecom and Zain.

Remmy Nweke:
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