Background

Rural telecommunications development in Gambia started in earnest sometime around 1992. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union)  had observed through numerous studies carried out  that there was a direct link between the development of telecommunications and the economy of a state. Going by this assumption, it reasoned that for third world (Least Developed Countries (LDCs)) to improve their lot and hence eradicate/alleviate poverty, the development of telecommunications was a prerequisite. Once this assumption is accepted, rural telecommunications development becomes an absolute necessity since most of our poor people live in the rural areas. The problem at the time was how to finance rural telecommunications considering the fact that it is extremely expensive and the revenue it generates almost negligible. In other words, how can you convince the leadership of a very poor country like The Gambia that it is in its best interest to invest in rural telecommunications even when there is likely to be no return on investment? How can you convince the management of a small and young institution like Gamtel that is expected to be self-sustainable to spend its meager resources in projects that will not generate any revenue for it? It is under this background that the development or rural telecommunications in The Gambia started.

Rural Telecommunications Development in The Gambia

Under the auspices of the ITU and its members, mainly government -owned telecom organizations, the ITU chose three third-world countries (Laos, Somalia and The Gambia) as a pilot project to try to proof this theory. The first launched this pilot project in Laos using mostly untested and unproven point-to multi-point radio networks that were highly over priced. No wonder the Laos experiment failed abysmally. There were lots of time and cost over-runs. No sooner was the initiative launched in Somalia then their civil war started. It was then that attentions shifted to The Gambia whose achievements in the telecommunications industry was beginning to be recognized. Several missions were made to The Gambia by ITU experts between 1993 and 1994 to make feasibility studies for the launch of another pilot rural telecommunications initiative. Ironically the day the last mission was to depart in preparation of the launch of the project, the Government of Sir Dawda Jawara was overthrown. The delegation was trapped here for a few days after which they secured a flight out of the country. Unfortunately any hope of starting the project in The Gambia flew with them.

Meanwhile we, in Gamtel did not wait for their proposals to be finalized. Instead we incorporated some of their ideas into a second phase of telecommunications in The Gambia in 1992. As well as laying a fibre-optic cable from Sere Kunda to Basse, we also incorporated a limited point-to-multipoint radio network in the project as a pilot scheme. This was launched in the URD. We started by first using Point-to-Multipoint radio access networks which had the advantage of easy coverage but the disadvantage of high capacity. This was seen as a good compromise as the main idea was to provide access for rural people. Our first point-to multipoint radio access network was the IRT 2000, developed by Philips and sold to Alcatel, which we deployed in about 18 villages. Because these types of networks require power, which are not readily available in rural Gambia, we provide the power by installing an array of solar panels feeding a battery bank. These customers therefore receive the power required for the system to work from this power banks. These villages were provided with lines in configurations of 4, 8, 16, 24 or 48 depending on the size of the village. In each of these villages, we made sure that at least two lines were reserved and used as community call centers we call Tele-centers in The Gambia. The village elders chose who operated the tele-centres were people would go to make calls the operator would also send for anybody that had a phone call regardless of where they lived in the village. In return for this service, the operator received from Gamtel 25 % of the revenue generated.

For many months after the completion of the project, we monitored traffic received and generated by these communities. After monitoring them for a long time, we concluded that rural telecommunications development was very expensive, generated very little outgoing traffic/revenue but generated a huge amount of incoming traffic/revenue from people who have relatives in those communities but live elsewhere. It was at this point that we realized that it made to develop rural telecommunications especially if you consider the fact that it is more affordable for our rural folks, say in Sutukoba, to call their relative living in, say Banjul to enquire about their health, conditions etc than to suddenly make the journey not knowing whether that person had moved to another domicile or whether he/she could accommodate him/her. This would save both families a lot in terms of fares, accommodation, food and time.

Consolidating Rural Telecommunications Development in The Gambia

From around 1993, Gamtel decided that to maintain and develop rural telecommunications to its full potential it was necessary to have permanent staff in those areas and give them incentives to want to stay there and some degree of autonomy. Thus, the region of Soma, covering the areas between Kalagi to Kudang on both banks of the river Gambia was established and the rest from after Kudang and Kaur to Koina the Basse region fell under the purview of Basse region. These provincial staff were under the direct authority of two regional managers one for each region who had powers such as the power to hire and fire of casual staff, the suggestion of projects and once approved to implement them, the commitment of Gamtel resources etc. To enable them operate without much bureaucracy, they reported directly to Mr. B. K. Njie, the Managing Director. Of course this did not mean that they were an island on their own. The planning of the networks were done in Banjul and their implementation also monitored from Banjul. Our Technical Audit and Quality Control staff paid them regular visits to ensure that the specifications used in the GBA were maintained throughout the rest of the country. We in Planning also monitored what resources we provide to them as well as how they are used. Financial audit staff also paid them regular courtesy calls and of course without prior advance notice. The scheme was very successful.

In order to justify this limited decentralization and to keep the staff busy, we started entering performance contracts with government whereby we connect a minimum of ten villages in each region each year. The planning of these networks, as stated earlier, was done from Banjul in consultation with the regional the Managers and engineers and they implemented them. If they had difficulties in implementing any project, we sent temporal support staff to help.

Meanwhile, the monitoring of the cost of building these networks against revenue generated continued. And so were the types of networks deployed and their performance. To minimize these costs, we used a combination of direct buried armoured cables for big villages, cables in ducts for towns and radio networks such as single/dual channel radios for the most remote villages and point-to multipoint systems were you have a cluster of villages. Our initial target was to ensure that one had access to a phone within 15 Km of anywhere one may find him/herself, then 10 KM, then 8 KM and God willing we plan to reduce that to about 5 Km this year.

The political dimension

Whereas under the first republic there was a lot of goodwill on the part of our development partners, this all but vanished after July 1994. One such assistance was the financing by the Japanese government of rural telecommunications to interconnect all rural health centers that was promised was shelved after the coupe D’etat. This did not however have much impact on our strategy for rural telecommunications development. In fact during the second republic our strategy changed from connecting 10 villages per region per year to that of using 25 % of our network development budget for rural telecommunication development.

The introduction of the Internet in The Gambia

The introduction of Internet in The Gambia in 1997/98 was a joint initiative of The Gambia government and the UNDP, with Gamtel as the implementing agency. Gamtel had planned to introduce it in The Gambia a year earlier on a small scale and confined mainly in the GBA. It later learnt of the UN’s Regional Internet Initiative for Africa, which aimed to establish and enhance Internet services in 10-12 Sub-African countries. These were Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, The Gambia, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Swaziland, Togo and Zaire. At a cost of just over $1.1 million, the UNDP provided $600,000 and The Gambia government the rest. The Government also had to guarantee certain under takings, such as not excluding anybody or entity based on political conviction, the active involvement at all stages of the project by the private sector and for the incumbent, Gamtel, to charge at least 30 % more than the new players for the first three years to allow them to grow. During this period also, the gateway was the joint ownership of the UNDP and Gamtel after which it became ours.

After the successful implementation of the project, we embarked on connecting as many schools and hospitals as possible at preferential rates. In many instances, we donated computers and provided support. The private sector also contributed a lot in terms of donations of computers and other peripherals. The government also, through its World Bank supported education and health projects, procured and distributed hundreds of computers and peripherals to all high schools, hospitals and major clinics. Power for these PCs in towns without electric supply is through the use of solar panels and battery banks and high capacity UPSs are supplied to schools and clinics in towns were the electric supply is erratic.

We, in The Gambia, recognise the potential of the Internet in the alleviation of poverty through education. Our main constraint is finance, power, and hardware. Currently there are a few pilot projects whereby some of our institutions of higher learning have their own Intranets and the same goes for our referral hospitals and a few Major health centres.

I hope this helps a bit.

Have a good day, Gassa.

PS: Sidibeh, I recently attended the marriage ceremony of one of my colleagues and your friend whose email adress I promised to send you was there. He is also very eager to here from you. His email address is [log in to unmask].

If you still have difficult opening the unesco link, you may copy and paste the url or may visit the Gambia UNDP website at www.ungambia.gm