Gambia: Connecting the Gambia to the World of ICT
July 23, 2014
By Musa Ndow
The Government of the Gambia under the leadership of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh has connected the Gambia to the world of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This is in line with his vision to provide the requisite infrastructure and create the enabling environment to ensure that ICT services are within the reach of each and every Gambian at anytime, anywhere and at affordable prices.
Under President Jammeh's government, ICT plays a crucial role in all sectors of the country's economy, boosting agricultural productivity and in providing the health sector with the necessary ICT infrastructure to improve delivery of services. In the same vein, the Ministry of Information Communication and Infrastructure (MOICI) is exploring ways and means of integrating the ICT needs of disadvantaged groups in society, while facilitating the development of ICT to support education delivery.
Recognizing the driving role that ICT plays in bringing about sustained economic growth and expansion of trade, MOICI is working in partnership with the private sector and donors within a liberalized and competitive market, one that offers consumer choice.
The Government of President Jammeh has brought lots of development in the ICT sector and from 1994 to date several ICT projects have been realized. Twenty years now, Gambians have witnessed the proliferation of not only radio stations and print media houses, but also the advent of the National Television (The Gambia Radio and Television Services) and GSM mobile operators, among a host of other projects. The Gambia's Internet Initiative Experience
In its quest to develop easy and cost effective information access, the United Nations Development Programme in 1997 launched the Internet Initiative for Africa (IIA), a three year regional project which aims among other things, to establish and enhance internet services and build capacity in Sub-Saharan African countries as a means of strengthening their economies and social development reforms. The Gambia became one of the first countries under the leadership of President Jammeh to join the bandwagon of the information superhighway under IIA, with the Gambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Gamtel), at the time,providing 50% of the US$1M needed for its implementation, on behalf of the government.
The Gambia's Internet Initiative became a reality in September 1998 with the launching of an Internet backbone and gateway. At the time, the Gambia boasts of a backbone covering the entire country on a 2 Megabytes per second platform, with nodes in 12 major cities and 512 kilobytes per second direct access to the rest of the world via Teleglobe, Canada. With Gamtel taking the leading role, it started the provision of Internet Services to the entire nation in October 1998. And Quantum Net became the first private company to offer Internet services in November 1998 with a high-speed connection to Internet backbone. Medical Research Council (MRC) follow suit by establishing a high-speed access in November 1998 and currently operates as a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). Prior to implementing IIA project in the Gambia in 1998, Gamtel was providing Internet Services via a low-speed X.25 access to CompuServe Online and Delphi in UK. Not only was this system slow and unreliable, it could only support 10 concurrent users of the total user base of 250 at the time. Barely a year after the launching of Internet services in 1998, by the president, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, the user base grew up to over 1200 dial-up users. The Internet user base growth rate was expected to remain the same for the next year or two before gradually reaching market saturation. 14 years after, on December 19, 2012 up to 500 international policy-makers, regulators, operators and service providers from across the world converged in Banjul for the historical launching of the Africa Coast to Europe Submarine Cable (ACE). The ACE Consortium, which is led by France Telecom-Orange, is made up of 16 members from Africa and Europe. The ACE project has a design capacity of 5.12 Tbps and is supported by the new 40 Gbps wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. This makes it possible to increase the capacity as required and adapt to the latest technological improvements by upgrading station equipment without any submarine cable modifications. The system also facilitates connectivity with terrestrial fibre optics cable.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201407231679.html
July 23, 2014
By Musa Ndow
The Government of the Gambia under the leadership of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh has connected the Gambia to the world of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This is in line with his vision to provide the requisite infrastructure and create the enabling environment to ensure that ICT services are within the reach of each and every Gambian at anytime, anywhere and at affordable prices.
Under President Jammeh's government, ICT plays a crucial role in all sectors of the country's economy, boosting agricultural productivity and in providing the health sector with the necessary ICT infrastructure to improve delivery of services. In the same vein, the Ministry of Information Communication and Infrastructure (MOICI) is exploring ways and means of integrating the ICT needs of disadvantaged groups in society, while facilitating the development of ICT to support education delivery.
Recognizing the driving role that ICT plays in bringing about sustained economic growth and expansion of trade, MOICI is working in partnership with the private sector and donors within a liberalized and competitive market, one that offers consumer choice.
The Government of President Jammeh has brought lots of development in the ICT sector and from 1994 to date several ICT projects have been realized. Twenty years now, Gambians have witnessed the proliferation of not only radio stations and print media houses, but also the advent of the National Television (The Gambia Radio and Television Services) and GSM mobile operators, among a host of other projects. The Gambia's Internet Initiative Experience
In its quest to develop easy and cost effective information access, the United Nations Development Programme in 1997 launched the Internet Initiative for Africa (IIA), a three year regional project which aims among other things, to establish and enhance internet services and build capacity in Sub-Saharan African countries as a means of strengthening their economies and social development reforms. The Gambia became one of the first countries under the leadership of President Jammeh to join the bandwagon of the information superhighway under IIA, with the Gambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Gamtel), at the time,providing 50% of the US$1M needed for its implementation, on behalf of the government.
The Gambia's Internet Initiative became a reality in September 1998 with the launching of an Internet backbone and gateway. At the time, the Gambia boasts of a backbone covering the entire country on a 2 Megabytes per second platform, with nodes in 12 major cities and 512 kilobytes per second direct access to the rest of the world via Teleglobe, Canada. With Gamtel taking the leading role, it started the provision of Internet Services to the entire nation in October 1998. And Quantum Net became the first private company to offer Internet services in November 1998 with a high-speed connection to Internet backbone. Medical Research Council (MRC) follow suit by establishing a high-speed access in November 1998 and currently operates as a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). Prior to implementing IIA project in the Gambia in 1998, Gamtel was providing Internet Services via a low-speed X.25 access to CompuServe Online and Delphi in UK. Not only was this system slow and unreliable, it could only support 10 concurrent users of the total user base of 250 at the time. Barely a year after the launching of Internet services in 1998, by the president, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, the user base grew up to over 1200 dial-up users. The Internet user base growth rate was expected to remain the same for the next year or two before gradually reaching market saturation. 14 years after, on December 19, 2012 up to 500 international policy-makers, regulators, operators and service providers from across the world converged in Banjul for the historical launching of the Africa Coast to Europe Submarine Cable (ACE). The ACE Consortium, which is led by France Telecom-Orange, is made up of 16 members from Africa and Europe. The ACE project has a design capacity of 5.12 Tbps and is supported by the new 40 Gbps wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. This makes it possible to increase the capacity as required and adapt to the latest technological improvements by upgrading station equipment without any submarine cable modifications. The system also facilitates connectivity with terrestrial fibre optics cable.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201407231679.html
