Fiber optic deployment challenges and their management in a developing country: A tutorial and case study in Ghana

Abstract The telecommunication industry in Ghana has undergone various stages of transformation. The industry has experienced exponential growth over the last decades. Sustaining this growth hinges on efficient infrastructural deployment and management. Fiber optics technology has become the primary network infrastructure and a communication medium, which provides higher bandwidth capacity high speed for current and emerging technologies. As the demand for new technology and services increases, fiber optics technology brings the promise of a flexible, scalability, full‐service network platform with potentially unlimited capacity. Although mobile network operators have invested significantly and strategically in fiber optic infrastructure, there has been an increase in the number of network outages caused by frequent failures in fiber optics networks such as fiber cable cuts. Fiber cable cuts have become the single most significant cause of transmission failure or disruption to telecommunication services in Ghana with an enormous impact on the subscriber's experience. This research seeks to investigate the challenges in fiber cable deployment in Ghana, with emphasis on the technical, regulatory, managerial challenges and recommend the appropriate solutions. The challenges of frequent fiber cuts can be attributed to external factors such as dig‐ups during road construction. Lack of regulatory guidelines and policies on fiber deployment and management poses a major threat to the fiber management in Ghana.