Gamtel Gambia Company Limited

GAMTEL Gambia Co. Ltd.

Telecoms Companies

Contact Address Details:

Gamtel Gambia Co. Ltd.
Website: www.gamtel.gm
Head Office
3 Nelson Mandela Street
Banjul, The Gambia
West Africa

Telephone number: 4229 999
Fax:                         422 8004

Customer Service Centre
Westfield Junction
Serrekunda

Tel. no:   4376309
               4376319

Abuko Station:
Tel. no: 4391261 or 4391262

Information:
The Gambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Gamtel)

was incorporated as a private limited liability company under the Companies Act 1955 as amended under Cap. 95. 02 of the Laws of The Gambia 1990.

Gamtel is currently the only licensed fixed line operator in the country and commenced business on April 1, 1984. The firm took over the operations of The Gambia Telecommunications Department and Cable & Wireless PLC.

It began operations with about 2,400 customers, most of whom lived in the Banjul capital and its surroundings. When it started operations, it only had a few analogue Strowger exchanges for switching and a few analogue transmission links to connect the limited rural towns that had some service. It also had a Standard B Earth Station, built in 1979, to connect to the outside world, mainly the United Kingdom.

Between 1984 and 1986, it acquired its first digital exchange, an Alcatel E10B equipped for 5,000 lines under The Greater Banjul Area Telecommunications Project (BATP) also known as Phase I. The project was fully financed by Caisse Centrale de Co-operation Economique de France (CCCE). The project included the construction of a 4,000 line local network and offered customers International Direct Dialing (IDD) for the first time.

Between 1988 and 1990, Phase II of The Urban Telecommunications Project was implemented, adding 8,000 more lines to the network and extending service to the Major towns of Yundum and Brikama, some 18 - 25 Km outside the capital, Banjul.

Between 1991 and 1993, Phase III was implemented and Gamtel's customer base increased to 16,000. A Multi-Access Radio Telephone (IRT 2000) rural network was also deployed in the Upper River Division (URD). To connect this rural network to the Greater Banjul Area (GBA) network, a 400 km fibre-optic cable using PDH technology was laid between Serekunda and Basse. This allowed for 18 major towns on the route of the fibre to be provided with limited service.

A digital Telex switch was commissioned in 1990 and the company financed and commissioned its first major project, an analogue cellular mobile service in 1992. This remained in service until 2001, when the company commissioned a subsidiary GSM mobile firm, Gamcel, following its award of a license to operate a GSM mobile service in 2000.

Between 1993 to date, Gamtel has continued to steadily increase the size of its network as well as its coverage. It financed and commissioned a Paging service, Tamanding, in 1995 and an Internet Gateway, co-sponsored by the UNDP under its Internet Initiative for Africa (IIA). During the same period, Gamtel was tasked by government to provide a nationwide television and radio service (GRTS). By so doing, Gambians had their first nationwide TV and Radio. Prepaid calling cards and other value-added services where also provided to customers.

Presently, Gamtel employs just over 1,000 people, about a quarter of which are women. The operator has a fixed line customer base of over 41,000 served by two digital Alcatel switches both of which handle national and international calls. Its national transmission backbone that covers over 70% of the Gambia is 100% digital mostly using fibre-optic cables and SDH technology. There is access to telephone services within eight km of anywhere one finds him/herself in the country. There is nationwide access to the Internet, and ISDN is offered to customers on demand. Its subsidiary GSM mobile operator, Gamcel that began operations on May 25th, 2001 now has a customer base of over 65,000 most of whom are prepaid customers. At present it has 30 base stations throughout the country providing coverage to more than 70% of the geographical area of the country.

Apart from its core activities of connecting people and training, Gamtel has over the years undertaken numerous social and charitable functions. It has, since its inception, trained hundreds of local people from primary to university level, made hundreds of donations to civic society and sponsors the mortuary and a ward in the main referral hospital in Banjul.

Gamtel's audited accounts for the years 1999, 2000 and 2001 show that the telecoms operator had annual turnovers of D268m, D345m and D418m respectively. Profit before Interest and Tax for the same period was D26m, D62m and D127m respectively, Profit after Tax was D22m, D40m and D75 respectively and Total assets for the same period was D1,043m, D1,111m and D1,213m respectively.

Future prospects for the company look very bright and the company plans to invest heavily in expanding its network, improve customer experience, grow revenue and increase profitability. With the above objectives in mind, Gamtel plans to increase its urban network by 180,000 and rural network by 50,000 lines during its current five-year Corporate Plan of 2003 - 2008.

In the late summer of 2007 the Gambia Government sold 50% of its shares in Gamtel to the Spectrum company.