Yus,

I believe you've missed some of the points I attempted to make and these are:

1. Rural telecommunications development, though very expensive, is also profitable. This we have found out by actually measuring investments and running costs in rural telecommunications against generated. You have to remember that the majority of the rich people and senior civil servants living in the GBA originally hail from the rural areas and their ties with the provinces is still as stromg as ever. These are a fraction of the people who are footing the bills that is why we do not subsidise rural telecommunications.

2. We are using point-to-point as well as point-to- multipoint (Wireless local loop) in the construction of rural networks and the planning and implementation is done from within Gamtel. I, myself, have spent six weeks in Canada, three weeks in Israel and another three weeks in Holland studying wireless network planning. I am sure you will agree with me that the geography of these countries do not allow for widespread coverage using good old copper. You will also agree with me that they have some of the best networks using radio the world has known.

3. The ITU did not fund any rural network development project that I am aware of. They wanted to, but it did not get off the ground because the last day that the ITU mission was to leave the country for the preparation of the launch of the project was the day the coupe d'etat happened.

4. Between January and now, we've added about 30 villages to the national network. Like I reported sometime back, we plan to connect at least 130 new villages to the national network this year. Of these networks, over 90 % are a combination fixed wireless networks and wireless local loop. In these villages we provide between 4 and 48 lines depending on the size of the village. You see Yus, our goal is to provide points of access were people could go and make or receive calls and not to provide lines to everyone.

5. Internet is fairly new in The Gambia and the cost of hardware expensive. What we aim to do is to show the way for others to follow. This we are doing by donating computers to schools and hospitals and connecting them at preferential rates. It is not our business to ensure that they are on the net. That is government's business. We however consider it our moral responsibility to provide the connectivity that they would require to be on the net.

6. Currently there are pilot projects interconnecting some of our institutions of higher learning as well as our referal hospitals and major clinics. This may be expanded to cover some of the other areas that you have suggested after a thorough review of its impact has been done. We cannot afford many costly mistakes.

7. Telephone penetration  as measured in the developed countries such as is done in the USA is not applicable to The Gambia. This is because most phones in the west are single user or single-family user phones. Here in The Gambia that is not the case. Here, even if the owner of the phone is not around, his/her phone is still available to the rest of the family as well as some of his/her neighbours. If you are unaware of this let me tell you that here it is not uncommon for people who live up to two, three or even four compounds away to be receiving calls from a neighbour. When you receive calls in this manner, you are normally asked to ring off and call after say five-ten minutes while someone is sent to get the called party. This is why we encourage the operation of telecentres anywhere we open up the network. Therefore pop/line in Gambia is definitely more than ten times the pop/line in the USA or in most of the western world.

8. I am not at liberty now to disclose some of the plans we are are reviewing with regards to rural telecommunications development in The Gambia as they are yet to be finalised. Once they are finalised and launched, then you will all hear about it.

Finally Yus, you don't have to believe all that you here or read on the L about the situation up country. The available statistics does not support a lot of the allegations about how our rural folks are faring. I would be the first to admit that there is abject poverty in the country. However, it is absolute rubbish for anyone to suggest that these cases are confined to the rural areas alone. For your information, from the commissioning of Gamcel to date, we have sold over ten thousand mobile phones in the provinces. This is about 25 % of all phones sold by Gamcel. Before you ask me how they are charging their sets I will tell you. As most of the sets sold there can go on for up to three or four days, they normally buy an extra battery or two. Some enterprising people have found a way of making a living from charging cellular phone batteries. They start by buying a couple of car batteries, have them fully charged, get a few car chargers for the most common sets and charge D5.00 to charge a mobile set. When one car battery is fully discharged, you give it to a driver to have it charged in the nearest town with electricity for D15.00 and meanwhile continue your charging business using your second battery. Sometimes someone manages to get a small generator and starts charging car batteries. Soon after, everyone is happily talking to everyone else and they all live happily ever after.

Lest I forget, Africel the second GSM operator, also has nationwide coverage since around January.

Have a good day, Gassa.