President Yahya Jammeh yesterday commissioned two antennae donated by the Global Voice to Gamtel at the Abuko Earth station.

Speaking at the commissioning of the antennae at the Abuko Earth Station, the Gambian leader said the collaboration between Gamtel and Global Voice is excellent in that private initiative and collaboration with public enterprises are fundamental in turning around institutions like Gamtel to ensure efficient performance, generate revenue and also to meet service requirements .

According to the Gambian leader, telecommunications is important in The Gambia’s economy. “The provision of these antennae by Global Voice will improve the quality of services for internet and international calls delivery.

Customer service is paramount and universal access to both traditional and mobile telephony is one of my major goals. Once services are developed and we are able to sustain international competition, The Gambia would have attained a major stride for a knowledge based society cushioned in technological advancement.

As we improve on our telecommunications infrastructure, business operators should work genuinely with Gamtel as a national carrier and ensure that through genuine use of information and technology of the core network, all can benefit for better services and businesses. We must all work to develop research, business and technology but we need related facilities such as this to ensure progress and service delivery”, he said.

For her part, Neneh Macdoul Gaye, Secretary of State for Communication and Information Technology said each antenna is a 4.5 meter scalable dish. She added that the antenna entail 20 megabits of internet which could be increased to 100 megabits. At 64 megabits after commissioning the antenna, The Gambia can now boast of having the highest per capita internet bandwidth in West Africa. “This is the second antenna donated to Gamtel. The first was a voice and data antenna which was installed last November.

This event is a manifestation of another remarkable achievement in government’s efforts to bring to the people of The Gambia high quality uninterruptible telecommunication service in this era of globalisation, in which communications has proven to be the fastest growing sector in the Global Information Infrastructure. The commissioning of the equipment which we are witnessing today by President Yahya Jammeh is in line with his vision of moving The Gambia to a model country in the African Region”, she stated.

She disclosed that the antennae cost US$120,000 including the accessories and were wholly financed by Global Voice SA. “I am informed that the system is a high performer, durable and with excellent track record of reliability”, SoS Macdoul Gaye concluded

Laurent Lamo, CEO/President of Global Voice speaking earlier on at the ceremony congratulated the Gambian leader on the celebration of the 42nd Independence anniversary. He said Global Voice will work to improve the communication systems in The Gambia. “In this context, let me reiterate that our desire is to be genuine partners of the government with a common goal of making The Gambian telecommunications the best in Africa. This is our pledge and we promise to live up to it”, he declared. He also pledged two million dalasis for the Under-20 in their qualification to FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada.

Also speaking at the ceremony, Edrissa Jobe, Chairman of the Gamtel Board of Directors said there is no industry in this country that has benefited, as much as the telecommunications sector from the conducive and competitive framework created by the government of the day.

“The launching of this new internet switch is a crucial step to accelerate the building of an internet protocol (IP) network which will enable Gamtel, the GSM companies and all the ISPs to deliver new products and services that are tailored to customer needs and easy to use”.

Katim Touray, the Managing Director of Gamtel for his part said the provision of this antenna will surely enable Gamtel to provide the requisite internet capacity to effectively respond to the growing needs of customers, in particular to develop the use of broadband services in The Gambia. “In this age of globalisation, timely and reliable information is a powerful tool for the formulation of sound national, regional and international policies and the making of informed and beneficial decisions for socio-economic development”.