Licences to operate the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) in the country have been reserved for Ghanaians, according to government.

This decision was taken with a view to ensuring that none of the existing local telecom companies gets a licence to operate the WiMAX.

WiMAX, a 4G wireless telecom protocol that provides fixed and mobile internet access for subscribers, has the potential to do for broadband what the cell phone did for voice and provided high speed internet access for users globally.

The technology combines the performance of Wi-Fi with the range and quality of service (QOS) of a carrier grade cellular technology, while the network can be as small as a single base station with a few subscriber units to much larger networks with millions of users.

Speaking to journalists in Accra, the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, lamented that no Ghanaian company has so far been able to raise the US$6.5 million as licensing fee required as licensing fee for the facility.

He said government had therefore set a grace period to enable local investors to source for funds to secure the licenses as government was bent on using Information and Communication Technology, ICT, to create a knowledge-based society.

?We are working hard to make ICT a prime enabler of economic transformation in the country,? he said, adding that government wanted to ensure that from every corner of the country, one could access the internet.

On broadband, the minister reiterated government?s commitment to the migration of radio and television transmissions onto the digital platform by 2014, thereby ensuring that each of the districts in the ten regions has at least one community radio station to facilitate information flow.