Internet Café operators in Tamale slam vodafone

Internet Café operators in Tamale are up in arms against Vodafone over what they describe as the telecommunication service provider’s deliberate attempt to cripple their businesses in-connection with poor or no internet services they subscribe for their clients.
They complained that their businesses have been grounded since November 2009 due to poor internet services and have threatened to hit the street if Vodafone fails to rectify the anomaly within a five day ultimatum given.

“By this communication we are giving Vodafone up to 26th April, 2010 to improve the services provided or communicate to us clearly on a reasonable time line within which they will live up to their promises,” the statement emphasized.

Agbenyo John Stephen, spokesperson of the Vodafone Broadband Users Association of Tamale accused the management of the northern regional directorate of milking their pockets to maximize profit for no services rendered due to lack of expertise to manage and deliver the bandwidth.

He said while the local operators were struggling to rejuvenate their almost collapsed cafes, Vodafone established a 24 hour internet centre at the Tamale main office which charges three times of what the local operators take for an hour.

“It is actually surprising that Vodafone, an internet service provider sponsored by the public funds is allowed to compete with small entrepreneurs by setting up its own internet café and providing customers with very good bandwidth,” Agbenyo charged.

According to Agbenyo Stephen, most of them invested in Vodafone’s broadband with the mindset of delivering quality services to their customers however their cafes have turned into white elephants because of the prevailing circumstance.

He explained that Vodafone subscribers previously had access to the online portal that allowed them to access their account and that facility he hinted had been taken off without any assigned reason since Vodafone took over the affairs of then Ghana Telecom.