Prepared by: Adama Deen
Gamtel

Statement by the Deputy Managing Director of Gamtel, on
the Opening of the African Internet &
Telecommunications Summit
Held at the Kairaba Hotel
Monday 5 June 2000

• Mr. Chairman
• The Honorable Speaker of the National Assembly
• Ho. SOS for Works, Communication & Information
• Honorable Secretaries of State
• Members of the Diplomatic & consular Corp.
• The Executive Director, of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization
• The ITU Regional Director, Dakar, Mrs. Margarida Evora-Sagna
• Dr Nii Quaynor, CEO, NCS, Ghana
• Distinguished guests
• Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the Chairman, the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Gamtel, I wish to thank the Hon. Secretary of State responsible for Communication, for accepting our invitation to officially open the African Internet & Telecom Summit, being held here today in Banjul, under the co-sponsorship of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), and theTelecommunication Development Bureau of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU - BDT).

Mr. Chairman, please allow me, before I proceed any further, to extend, the regret of the chief executive and Managing Director of Gamtel, Mr. B.K Njie, who cannot be here with us today, and has therefore asked me, to personally stepped?in for him, and to also extend his apology to this august gathering.

In recent years, we have witnessed the globalization of the world economy and also the convergence of technologies, leading to new innovations, such as the internet. In this increasing information based environment, access to information is necessary for sustainable human development. Therefore, access to the Internet is regarded as an essential prerequisite for providing valuable economic, social and technical information to the public and private institutions and civil society alike. The development and growth of our economies, will therefore, depend to a large extent, on the degree to which, we take advantage of the opportunities the Internet and new technologies, present.

Today, as the global trend is towards cost?based tariffs, championed largely by developed countries ? the FCC benchmark ? a case in point, it is important that, as African administrations, whose mandate among other things includes universal service obligation that technologies such as the internet and internet?based services, be adopted as an important element of our administrations' overall cost management strategies.

The advent of technologies such as the internet, VOIP and the availability of broadband technologies, have more than ever before, given us the opportunity to seek greater leverage and more cost effective traffic routing solutions to better meet the challenges, pose by increased reduction of the international accounting rates.

Therefore, as African administrations, it is important that we realize the need to shift from traditional circuit?switched platforms, in favor of the development of unitary packet?switched data networks, where one network, "fits all" ? voice, data, internet and video, has just begun. We cannot afford to be left behind.

Mr. chairman, Hon. Secretary of State for Communication, ladies and gentlemen, although the internet present telecom operators greater opportunities for business; this notwithstanding, one of our biggest potential threats we face today as we undergo reforms, is the threat pose by the Internet.

With saturated markets and fierce competition, second?tier and third-tier companies in the developed world are increasingly seeking market opportunities in Africa, with technology applications, whose regulatory regimes in our countries, are either non-existing, or are, in their infancies.

To the extent that such threats does become reality, we believe, would depend on how policies and regulatory regimes are conceived by our governments. I am confident that, the Hon. Secretary of State, will take note of such issues, as we finalize and adopt our National Policy on Communication & Information (NACIP).

Mr. Chairman, the story of Internet development will be incomplete, without mention of telecommunications development in the Gambia, a major contributing factor, for Internet success in the Gambia.

In April 1984, the Government of the Gambia, in a bid to modernize the domestic telecommunications sector, which at the time, was a shadow of the international telephony services, amalgamated the then Department of Telecoms with Cable & Wireless (G) Ltd., the provider of international gateway and telephony services, forming what we now commonly refer to, as Gamtel.

Having been in existence for 16 years, the Gambia and Gamtel can now boast of an efficient telecommunication system, managed by a highly skilled and motivated workforce, and anchored on a modern telecom infrastructure including, but not limited to the following: two state of the art OCB 283 digital exchanges; an optical fiber cable, that stretches for more than 400kms from Banjul to Fatoto on the south bank, whose capacity has now been upgraded from PDH 140mbps to SDH 622mbps; and a standard B earth station, whose upgrading to standard A will, in the not too distant future, be a reality.

To complement the digitalization of the fixed network, Gamtel is committed to a GSM service. A tender for the supplier of GSM network equipment was put out exactly one month ago from today. It is expected that, by the end of this year, the long over due digital mobile service for the Gambia will be put into service to replace the analog system, which has been in operation since 1992.

Mr. Chairman, the introduction of full range of internet services in the Gambia started in September 1998, following the Internet Sensitization Workshop held in Abuja, Nigeria in April 1997, when the Government of the Gambia, made known its desire to participate in UNDP's Internet Initiative for Africa. Gamtel was charged with providing a direction for the prompt implementation of the initiative on behalf of government, and has since then played a lead role in the provision and maintenance of the national Internet gateway.

The realization of this development objective, could not have been achieved, without the tacit support and commitment of the government of the Gambia and UNDP, given the record time of 12 months it took, from conception & design to final commissioning on 25 September 1998.

Today, we can boast of a high speed Internet Gateway of bandwidth capacity of 512kbps and backbone that spans the entire nation with points of presence in 12 major growth centers. With an excellent telecommunication and Internet infrastructure, the Gambia is poised to be in the forefront of this technological renaissance in Africa.

Mr. chairman, the provision of Internet services in the Gambia, is premised on a genuine partnership between the public provider and the private ISPs. We believe that, given the sheer limited size of our economy and private sector, there is room for co-existence between Gamtel and private ISPs, where the latter, takes the leading role in the marketing of Internet services. This public/private sector partnership is a major pillar of our national Internet access strategy, as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed between the government and the UNDP.

The proliferation of startups or "dot com" companies and emerging services such as e-commerce in the developed world, as well as the current wave of internet linkups in schools, community centers, educational institutions, the mushrooming of Internet cafes, cyber cafes, etc., in developing countries such as the Gambia are testimonies of the ability of the Internet to create wealth and knowledge for humanity.

In conclusion, I wish to thank the Honorable Secretary of State for Works, Communication and Information and all those who are present here today, for having spared their very invaluable time to witness the opening of the African Internet & Telecom Summit being held here in Banjul.

Finally, I wish to extend my special thanks to the organizers of this Summit, especially, Mr. David Souter, Executive Director of CTO, and Mrs. Evora-Sagna, Regional Director, ITU (Dakar) and to all those, who, in one way or the other, have made this occasion possible.

I wish you all success, in the coming days ahead.

I thank you for your attention.