New Landing Point for Gambia in the Offing

As Gamtel Signs MOU with ACE

The Government of The Gambia has mandated Gamtel to sign on its behalf a Memorandum of Understanding with Africa Cable to Europe (ACE) Consortium for the acquisition of a Submarine Cable Landing Point for the country, a statement from the State Department for Communication, Information and Information Technology said yesterday.

This is seen as part of efforts geared towards providing a more secure and robust communications infrastructure in The Gambia with high capacity bandwidth.

The landing point, which is consistent with the connect Africa agenda, provides a direct global connection to international undersea fibre optic cables, thus making international traffic from The Gambia have direct access to international submarine cables. 

According to the statement from DOSCIT, this international telecommunications infrastructure will greatly improve access to information, lower costs of provision of international services and, by creating global coverage, better access to existing national networks.

The new infrastructure will also ensure that traffic between African countries is routed within the continent hence retain and increase the revenue of operators within the continent.

The project, the statement added, which is expected to be completed by 2011, will provide The Gambia direct access to world-wide submarine cable networks. This facility will significantly reduce the cost of bandwidth and improve quality on international telephony and related services to all Gambians at affordable prices.

The landing point, the statement went on, will also compliment the country's existing international connectivity and provide resilience to its international traffic.