15 December 2006, by Nana Kofi Acquah in Accra, Ghana. Months after MTN bought Areeba- Ghana"s leading telecommunication network, current reports indicate that Vodacom of South Africa is gunning for Ghana Telecom, the mother company of Onetouch, Areeba"s direct competitor.
The government of Ghana, which holds 100 percent shares in Ghana Telecom, after buying off the 30 percent Telecom Malaysia held, advertised internationally for an advisor to commence a privatization process in Ghana Telecom (GT) after terminating the management contract between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and Telenor of Norway after accusations that over the period of GoG's relationship with them, the 22 Norwegians carted to their home country millions of dollars per month including $150,000 monthly management fee paid to Telenor.
If the deal between Ghana Telecom and Vodacom goes through, it would mean a direct clash between old rivals on a totally new level. Currently, even though Areeba stands as Ghana"s leading telecommunication network (or so they claim), Onetouch, stands as Ghana"s most consistent Telecommunication brand. Every telecommunication brand in Ghana has undergone some brand name-change, often as a direct effect of change in ownership structure, except Ghana Telecom"s Onetouch.
Millicom Ghana Ltd"s Mobitel, Ghana"s premier (14 years in existence) analog mobile network changed it"s name to Buzz GSM when it went digital and changed again this very year to Tigo. They currently have about 770,154 subscribers (almost) nationwide.  Kasapa Telecom (Mobile CDMA) started off as Celtel eleven years ago. They currently have about 136,832 subscribers and seem to be fast expanding. Ten years ago, Scancom Ltd took off with their mobile brand, Spacefon, which became Spacefon-Areeba, Areeba and most possibly should become MTN in 2007 has 2,180,000 subscribers. In the 6 years of its existence, Ghana Telecom"s Onetouch has about 711,119 subscribers which might look meager against Areeba"s 2,180,000.
When you however add Ghana Telecom"s 357,011 fixed line and payphone subscribers, and the fact that between their payphones, fixed lines and mobile service and broadband4U and dial up4U services, they cover every part of Ghana, and it makes it obvious why MTN and Vodacom will be in for a showdown.