Subscribe RSS FeedThe Gambia, as part of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) Submarine Cable Consortium will benefit from direct internet connectivity, provided by a 17,000 Km undersea fibre optic cable stretching from France to South Africa. (See map; Gambia is No. 6).
On June 5th. 2010, nineteen mostly African telecommunication companies including our own GAMTEL, signed a construction and maintenance agreement with Alcatel-Lucent to supply the system. The contract is solid and encompassing; taking care of future maintenance and upgrading. The cable system will use new technology which allows for increasing it’s capacity at any time in the future, without having to do any new submarine work.
This is indeed good news. Internet connectivity is now a necessity and not a privilege. It has become a key driver of social and economic growth. The project when complete in 2012, will increase our international bandwidth, improve broadband connectivity and hopefully reduce the price of internet access. The system will be more secure, robust and stable. Internet downtime will be dramatically reduced. All sectors of the country will benefit – central government, businesses, banks, educational institutions, farmers etc.
Hopefully, we will then be able to reduce prices and provide a more reliable service at the Gaminternet Cafe - no more “sorry, the internet is down today and we have no idea when it will be back on”.
Click here for details in the ACE press release. Meanwhile, we eagerly await and pray for the successful completion of the project.
Tags: ACE, Africa, internet connectivity, telecommunications