REGULAR CUSTOMERS (home lines, not calling cards, ) When you initiate a call to the Gambia this is what happens: 1. The traffic in most cases is routed from your carrier to MCI/Sprint 2. If network resources (circuits) are available, then your call is put through to the Gambia 3. If their are no available network resources, then the call is routed to the backup route point, which in this case is London 4. If London has enough circuits open to fulfill your call, then you are connected to whomever you are calling in the Gambia, else you cant get through The problem is three fold 1. US telephone traffic to the Gambia is mainly handled by Spring and MCI who have a direct link to the Gambia. The voice traffic is directly routed to the Gambia with London as backup. This means that if US call volume to the Gambia is overwhelming, the excess traffic (volume) is routed through London. 2. Norway's telephone traffic to the Gambia is routed through London 3. Belgium's telephone traffic was also being routed through London (this should not have happened and has since been rectified) Now, two reasons are responsible for the problem US Phone customers (not calling cards) are experiencing calling the Gambia 1. There are not enough dedicated circuits for the Gambia from the US 2. The volume of traffic that the backup Route point can handle, which in this case is London Whenever their is network satuaration with call volume to the Gambia from the US, the excess call volume is routed through the backup route point(London). London was at the same time being saturated with too much voice traffic from other points to the Gambia. Specifically London was being over saturated with voice traffic from Norway and especially Belgium to the Gambia. So essentially when the US circuits for the Gambia have too much traffic, all calls from the US, Norway, Belgium and London were competing for the same limited number of circuits in London. This was just too much, hence some of the access problems people have been experiencing especially from the US, Norway, London, Belgium and all other points in Europe or elsewhere that are routing their traffic through London. The good news is, the highest volume of voice traffic to the Gambia, that was being routed through London, was coming from Belgium and Gamtel has since asked British Telecom to stop this. This has been corrected, I think it was yesterday or so. So essentially, people should see marked improvement in accessing the Gambia, especially from Europe. This will also improve access conditions for those in the US, since the backup point of voice traffic (London) has more capacity to handle overflow traffic from the US. There will still be some problems for those in the US since two factors affect their ability to call the Gambia 1. The number of available circuits 2. The volume of traffic that the backup Route point can handle, which this case is London The number of available circuits to the Gambia has not changed, and the only way that will be increased is if customers directly complain to their carriers about difficulty in calling the Gambia. As I have stated before, Gamtel has indeed asked MCI and Sprint to increase the number of dedicated circuits to the Gambia. They have been denied this request, since Sprint and MCI said they are not getting any complaints about difficulties in calling the Gambia from the US. Now, like I said before, the only way that can be fixed is if you complain. Even if your carrier is not MCI or Sprint, you should still complain to your carrier, because regardless of which Carrier handles your International calls, they in all likelihood, route your calls to the Gambia through MCI and Sprint. CALLING CARD CUSTOMERS Your problem is three fold 1. Your prepaid platform operator (calling card company) has too few lines/circuits to fulfill your call 2. There are not enough dedicated circuits for the Gambia from the US 3. The volume of traffic for the backup Route point (London) was too much This is what happens when you use a calling card 1. The traffic is in most cases routed from the Prepaid Platform Operator (calling card company) to MCI or Sprint 2. If network resources (circuits) are available, then your call is put through to the Gambia 3. If their are no available network resources, then the call is routed to the backup route point (London) 4. If London has enough circuits open to fulfill your call, then you are connected to whomever you are calling in the Gambia, else you cant get through Well, the only remedy is to buy a better calling card, say one from the big carriers, because they will definitely be in a better position to handle and fulfill your call. It has been suggested by some that, maybe some of the problems are due to Gamtel being unable to handle the volume of calls coming to its network. This is not the case. Most of the problems people are experiencing calling the Gambia are bandwidth related from the point of origin of the call. From my understanding Gamtel is working to fix these bandwith/circuit problems with their partners, especaily from the US and Europe Hope this helps to clarify the calling problems. Again, complain to your carriers if you want to see any permanent improvement, regardless of whether you are in the US or elsewhere. I would encourage those in the US and London to definitely complain because, most of the telephone traffic to the Gambia is routed through the US and London. I will try and see if I can get an official statement from Gamtel about these problems and what they are doing to resolve them. Thanks and Happy EID to all YNjie _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com