Whether it is a harbour office, a school or a yard near a mine, the question we are asked most is which internet connection to buy. The honest answer depends on where you are and what you cannot afford to lose.
Fibre: best where it reaches
Where a provider has fibre in the street, it is usually the fastest and most consistent option, with low latency for video calls and cloud systems. The limits are coverage and installation time, and a fibre cut from road works can take a site offline for days.
4G and 5G mobile broadband: quick to deploy
A good outdoor router with an external antenna can bring a site online the same week. Speeds depend heavily on the tower, the signal and how busy the network is at peak times. It is an excellent backup link, and often the main link on a temporary site.
Starlink: for places the others do not reach
The National Communications Authority approved Starlink for satellite broadband in Ghana in April 2024, and the service started operating at the end of August 2024. It is a strong option for remote sites without fibre or reliable mobile signal. Plan for a clear view of the sky, a secure mount, and power for the terminal during outages.
Why two links beat one
For any office where downtime costs money, we recommend two different kinds of connection, for example fibre plus 4G, or Starlink plus 4G, behind a router that fails over automatically. Two links from different technologies rarely fail at the same time.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What is the typical speed at my location at busy times, not the maximum?
- What happens, and how fast, when the line goes down?
- Is there a fair-use limit on data?
- Will my router and switch stay powered during an outage? A link is useless if the equipment behind it is off.