By Emmanuel Bamfo 
We all love seeing fresh asphalt on our daily commute. However, the government’s aggressive “Big Push” road construction programme acts like a wrecking ball for our underground digital networks.
Sam George recently spoke at the Government Accountability Series and laid out some shocking numbers for the public. He stated that road construction accounts for exactly 49% of all fibre cuts across the nation.
Just picture the scenario. A massive excavator digs a deep trench and snaps a vital fibre-optic cable in half. That single careless snap leaves thousands of people staring at buffering screens for hours. For example, the Minister cited a massive cut on the Winneba-Mankessim stretch that killed internet service for 17 straight hours. I rely heavily on my mobile data for work, so an outage like that completely ruins my productivity :/
Another incident caused a 19-hour blackout, proving just how much damage these contractors inflict. Telecom operators usually take the blame for these outages, even when third-party construction crews cause the actual destruction.
You might think a broken cable only costs a few cedis to patch up. Think again! These frequent disruptions force telecom operators to bleed serious cash every single month. By September 2026, Ghana has already recorded a staggering 8,578 fibre cuts this year alone.
What does that look like in pure cash? Operators have spent over US$20 million just repairing these damaged cables. Sam George passionately argued that telecom companies could use this exact money to build brand new cell sites and expand rural coverage instead. The situation only grows worse, considering the country recorded about 3,900 cuts in 2021 and almost double that number today.
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Stalled Network Expansions: Operators spend budgets fixing old lines rather than building fast 4G and 5G towers for rural communities.
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Poor Network Quality: Constant splicing of broken cables degrades your overall internet speed and call quality over time.
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Wasted Technical Resources: Technicians waste thousands of man-hours fixing avoidable mistakes instead of optimizing our existing networks.
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Increased Consumer Costs: Telecom companies eventually pass these massive repair bills down to everyday subscribers like you and me.
While government road projects take the gold medal for network destruction, they do not work alone. Who else joins the cable-snapping party? Sam George pointed his finger at two other major culprits destroying our national connectivity.
First, illegal mining (galamsey) accounts for about 25% of the total fibre damage. Because obviously, unregulated gold digging and delicate telecommunication lines make the perfect combination! Second, private estate developers cause another 26% of the cuts when they haphazardly dig trenches for new luxury mansions.
IMO, we seriously need better coordination before anyone brings a shovel near a road corridor. The sheer carelessness from all these groups boggles my mind completely.
Fortunately, the government actually has a solid plan to stop this expensive madness. Sam George announced that authorities plan to implement a brilliant “Dig Once” policy across all new projects. What does this mean for us?
This policy forces all road contractors to build dedicated fibre chambers right alongside the new roads. Basically, telecom companies will safely lay their cables inside protected concrete tubes instead of burying them directly in the dirt. This way, future road repairs will not instantly sever our data access.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) also plans to share exact fibre maps with contractors before they even start digging. They want contractors to know exactly where the cables sit to avoid unnecessary disasters. Furthermore, the NCA plans to hold telecom operators accountable only for service failures within their actual control.
So, the next time your internet randomly drops, maybe look out your window for a bulldozer before you angrily call customer service. We all want world-class roads, but we absolutely need reliable internet to run our modern lives successfully. FYI, the government still plans to build 800 new telecom sites this year despite these expensive setbacks.
We urgently need road agencies, private developers, and telecom operators to finally talk to each other. They must stop burying our digital progress under heavy excavator tracks. Do you think the new “Dig Once” policy will actually solve our constant internet outages? Let me know your thoughts down below!
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