Introduction

The telecommunication industry is perhaps the fastest growing industry in most countries. In this article an attempt would be made to highlight some of these advances and how Gamtel had been reacting to them.

Advances in ICT, over recent years, has gone a long way in making Universal Access, a long-standing goal of the international community, a real possibility in the 21st century. Defined as a publicly available telephone, accessible to every individual in every community, universal access is increasingly possible through advances in technology and sector reforms.

Advances, particularly in the area of wireless technologies have had an enormous impact in transforming the information and communications industry. This can be seen in the growing complexity and affordability of mobile phones, increased rural communications deployment and in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs).

Here, in The Gambia, universal access has long been an objective of Gamtel; hence the successful reduction of the distance one needs to travel to have access to a phone from about 18 Km a decade ago to less than 8km today. This has been made possible through the deployment of various technologies that suit our country and affordability. It is envisaged that by year-end, every village in the country would be connected to the PSTN. This is being done through the deployment of advanced wireless local loop technologies particularly in areas where the terrain is difficult to access.

Mobile Phones making immense contribution to Universal Access

When some countries in Europe set up a GSM (Groupe Speciale Mondial) study group in 1982 to study the possibility of the digitalization of cellular phones, little did they realize that the result of this study would revolutionize the world as never seen before. In the early 1980s, UK mobile phone subscription was projected to reach 20,000 by 1990. In reality, UK mobile phone subscription in the mid 1980s was 0.5 million and reached the 1 million mark in 1990. In less than a decade since coming into commercial service in 1991, GSM (now taken to mean Global System for Mobile Communications) has become the most adopted standard in the world of mobile phones.

Advances in ICT and public sector reforms have made it possible for mobile phones to be much more affordable and widespread. During its 25 years of use, mobile phone growth has far outstripped that of fixed lines. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), one in five people around the world has a mobile phone – up from one in 339 back in 1991 and that over 45% of these users are in the developing world. By end 2002, there were 1.155 billion mobile users compared to 1.129 billion fixed telephone lines. Also called cell or cellular phones, they are more popular in Europe and Asia than in the US where only about 50% own cell phones compared to about 90% in Asia and Europe. Although in its infancy in most parts of Africa, mobile phone subscription has seen upper double digit and triple digit percentage growth throughout the continent. According to a recent ITU report, more Africans have begun using phones since 2000 than in the whole of the last century. Here in The Gambia, there are currently over 200,000 mobile users compared to about 46,000 fixed telephone lines.

The evolution of Mobile Phones

AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), using a range of frequencies between 824 MHZ and 894 MHZ, was first approved by The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1983 and first used in Chicago. TACS (Total Access Communication Systems), a modified version of AMPS was also developed about the same time. Both systems were analogue and therefore prone to fading, distortions and cloning. A little later, Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Service (NAMPS), incorporating some digital technology, allowed the system to carry about three times as many calls as the original version.

Birth of Digital Mobile phones

GSM, the standard developed in Europe and used in most parts of the world, is the result of a study that started in 1982. It operates in the 900 MHZ frequency band and first went into commercial Service in June 1991. It was established as a standard long before digital cellular phones became commonplace in American culture. With it, it is now possible to place calls to anywhere in the world and to locate a person using a mobile phone to within a few Metres any where in the world.

PCS (Personal Communications Service) is a wireless phone service similar to cellular phones and operating within the frequency range 1.85 GHZ and 1.99 GHZ. Unlike cellular phones that were originally conceived for use in cars, PCS was designed from the ground for greater mobility. It transmits at much lower power, thus requiring a larger number of antennas. It is found mainly in the Americas.

3rd Generation (3G) looks more like a Personal Data Assistant (PDA) with features such as video conferencing, advanced calendar functions and multi-player gaming. In Japan, DeCoMo’s 3G service FOMA, the world’s first and launched in October 2001, has a data transmission speed of 384 KBS that enables one to talk by video link or to look at an internet site while talking on the phone. DeCoMo’s next target is to achieve a speed of 100 MBS for 4G by 2010. Some of its researchers even talk of 5G that may incorporate recognition based on our five senses.

According to an October 2003 publication of the ITU, one in two of the exhibitors at the ITU Telecom World 2003 were showcasing their products at the event for the first time, reflecting the crucial role of new technologies and emerging markets in the evolution of the telecommunications industry. To better appreciate these advances, all the functionalities in a typical palm-sized mobile phone would have needed an entire floor of an office building just 30 years ago. The advances in ICT have been phenomenal and are revolutionizing every facet of human life.

The Internet and broadband

The Internet has turned out to be one of most influential inventions ever. Although it only took off around 1990, the Internet’s adoption has been very spectacular, almost doubling every year. Here in The Gambia, Internet use has picked steadily during the past few years, thanks to the provision of a Gateway by Gamtel in collaboration with the UNDP in 1998.

Broadband has arrived at a time when the revolutionary potential of the Internet has still to be fully tapped. At the ITU Telecom World 2003 one of the hot topics at the gathering had been broadband and the giant leaps in wireless technologies. According to ‘Birth of Broadband’, an ITU report published in September 2003, there were 63 million broadband subscribers and that worldwide broadband penetration growth has been increasing at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 155% since 1999. In the USA, broadband growth far outstripped mobile growth for the four years after reaching 2.5 million subscribers. Leading the way in broadband penetration is South Korea with approximately 21 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, followed by China with 15 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants and Canada with 11 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. With Satellite and wireless broadband solutions still in their relative infancy, most broadband users are connected to the Internet through fixed-line connections, mainly DSL (Digital Subscriber Lines) or cable modems.

The growing demand for faster Internet speeds has been one reason for the growth of broadband. With speeds of up to five times that of earlier dial-up technologies, users can play online games, download music and videos, share files as well as access information much faster and much more efficiently. Broadband not only enables faster downloads, it also improves user experiences. Technological convergence, which has seen computer applications finding their way into other devices such as mobile phones and television sets and vice versa, voice communications over computers has had an added incentive for the demand for broadband services.

Due to broadband’s "Always On" nature it is highly susceptible to intrusion by hackers and attacks by computer viruses and worms. It is therefore very important to put in place elaborate security measures such as firewalls to secure them.

Currently, last mile broadband technologies are mostly available through cable, xDSL using PSTN copper cables and wireless. A letter denoting its mode of operation mostly precedes DSL. The many DSL flavors which include ADSL (Asynchronous DSL), HDSL (Hybrid DSL), SDSL (Synchronous DSL), VDSL (Very high bit rate DSL), RADSL (Rate Adaptable DSL) etc., all offer much higher upload or download speeds when compared to standard Modem connections. Most allow you to surf the net and speak at the same time but are distant limited.

Wireless broadband technologies usually come in the form of fixed wireless such as Wireless Local Loop (WLL), Local Multi-point Distribution Service (LMDS) and Microwave Multi-point Distribution Systems (MMDS) and operating on the 5 GHz licensed band and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) operating on the 2.4 GHz unlicensed band. Wireless Internet is based on WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) created by Nokia, Motorola, Ericson and Phone.com in 1997. Since then some 350 companies have joined them based on their belief that a universal standard is critical to a successful implementation of wireless Internet.

Wi-Fi (Wireless fidelity) refers to the wireless technology standard operating on the unlicensed frequency band. It is simple, uses no wire connections and the computers can be up to 30 Metres apart. They are sometimes referred to as 802.11 networking, which refer to the standards under which they operate. Wi-Fis on the 802.11 b and 802.11g transmit at 2.4 GHZ while the 802.11a transmits on 5 GHZ. Wi-Fis based on 802.11a and 802.11g can handle speeds of up to 54 MBS although 30 MBS is more typical. 802.11 b can handle up to 11 MBS although 7 MBS is more typical but may fall to 1 or 2 MBS if there is a lot of interference.

A hotspot is a connection for a Wi-Fi network. It is a small box that is hardwired into the Internet. The box has a radio that can talk to up to 100 802.11 cards. Hotspots are mostly deployed in crowded areas such as in restaurants, airports, railway stations, libraries or even in the home. They can be open giving automatic access to any user that has Wi-Fi equipped capability or secured when you would need a Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) key which is an encryption system for data that 802.11 sends through the air.

Voice services over data networks such as Internet Protocol (IP) recently emerged as an alternative to conventional telephony and at a lower cost to users. It is believed that at the end of 2002, VoIP traffic accounted for more than 10% of international traffic.

Choice of New Technologies

In his book, "The Economics of Network Industries", renowned academic and writer Oz Shy posits, "When facing a technological revolution, the first question that comes to mind is whether the new technology will be adopted given the large installed base of existing inferior technology". This is the case for many new technologies. For example, even though the first email message was sent in 1969 its adoption did not take off until the mid 1980s. The phenomenal growth of Fax during the late 1980s and early 1990s has almost ground to a halt, thanks to the growing affordability and availabilty of scanners and the Internet. The above examples raise the question as to what influences a change of technology and its adoption by the majority of people. Part of the answer lies in the fact that some technologies need mass adoption to convince people that possess inferior but proven technologies to adopt it considering the cost of switching to these new technologies. After all, who needs email, fax or a telephone knowing that no one else had one? A good example of such a peculiarity is the cassette tape. There is no doubt that CDs produce superior sound and yet there still exists a market for cassette tapes.

A pertinent question to ask when faced with such scenarios, is how has Gamtel fared since its inception in 1984? What did Gamtel consider when choosing new technologies and services and how has been their adoption by Gambians? Part of the answer is that it has been very difficult; and one incident that comes to mind is the choice Gamtel had to make in 1991 between deploying a GSM mobile network or analogue network. On this occasion after months of research and deliberation Gamtel finally decided to stick to the old but proven TACS system rather than the modern GSM technology with all that it promised. In hindsight, the choice proved to be the wrong one based on the fact that soon afterwards the original problems associated with GSM technology such as security were solved and its adoption in Europe became widespread; and this soon led to the obsolescence of the analogue mobile system as more and more operators switched over to GSM.

While switching from one technology to the other may seem simple and straightforward to some, its associated costs are often neglected. These costs can range from the premature withdrawal of recently acquired equipment and spares to the re-training of operations and maintenance staff on an entirely new technology.

Another area of concern when faced with the choice of new technologies, particularly in the developing countries, is the size of the market when compared to the cost of deploying such technologies. Gamtel has recognized, over the years, the need to deploy modern technologies to cater for the expectations of its customers. This however, in most cases, been balanced with the need to meet the expectations of the less privileged in our society, requiring only access to the basic Plain Old Telephones (POTS).

Another consideration is the need to balance the cost of deploying such new technologies and the charges that need to be levied to recover the investment. While the worldwide cost of deploying some of these technologies may be almost the same, our incomes are not! For example, Gamtel had the opportunity and capability of deploying a 3rd Generation (3G) mobile network in 2001 but did not; because not many in our society could have afforded the terminal sets. Moreover, how many in our society need all the functionalities of 3G that 2G haven’t?

Although the price of broadband subscription is expected to fall as alternative technologies are introduced, the cost of broadband subscription is still high for most economies. Broadband subscription per month in the 50 cheapest economies of the 82 that has broadband commercially currently range from about $238.65 (US) in Grenada, $91.77 in Luxembourg, $73.66 in Italy, $52.99 in the USA, $51.46 in France to about $24.19 in Japan. In fact, the average monthly broadband charge in these 50 countries is more than $70.00 (US).

Despite these complications however, Gamtel still manages to deploy new technologies in a timely, affordable and cost effective manner. It has also, over the years, invested heavily in infrastructure that has enabled others to ride on and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country. For example, the provision of Radio and Television as well as GSM services in most parts of the country was made easy due to the availability of Gamtel infrastructure that these entities ride on.

In line with this strategy, Gamtel would be deploying broadband technologies in a gradual and controlled manner for the benefit of all. Having successfully tried a pilot ISDN project last year, Gamtel is about to deploy xDSL in some parts of the GBA and ISDN speed connections for most of the rest of the country. Already, one form of broadband, through a Virtual Private Network (VPN), is available for businesses in almost all the major towns. Amongst our clients for this service are Trust Bank and the Medical Research Council (MRC)