Glo Secures Gambia Licence

According to a company statement, Nigerian telco Globacom (Glo) has secured a licence to operate in Gambia. The concession is Glo’s sixth, and comes four months after the award of a licence in Senegal. The company’s other countries of operation are Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.

On receiving the licence, Glo’s executive director for human resources Adewale Sangowawa said: ‘This adds impetus to our desire to provide the West African sub-region with an excellent communication network and cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services.'

The licence allows Globacom to land its Glo 1 trans-Atlantic submarine cable in Gambia, with opportunities to extend the infrastructure to neighbouring countries. It also gives the company the right to carry traffic for major operators, the government and wholesale customers in Gambia.

QCell Shareholder Selling Off It's Stake

Uflex, an Indian manufacturing group, is planning to sell its entire 40% stake in Gambian mobile operator QCell, according to a report on Moneycontrol.com citing Indian-based business news channel CNBC-TV18.

QCell, Gambia's fourth and newest cellular communications provider, is controlled by domestic ISP QuantumNet's CEO Muhammed Jah, a local entrepreneur, and launched its commercial 2G/3G mobile network in July 2009. It is the country's only 3G operator.

Gamtel Awards Alca-Lu Fibre-Optic deal

Gambia’s incumbent PSTN operator Gamtel has awarded a contract to Alcatel-Lucent to roll out a terrestrial fibre-optic transmission network under its 'Cross Gambia Project', reports Afrique en Ligue.

A release from the telco’s Banjul office said the joint venture project with Senegalese counterpart Sonatel will extend fibre links from Dakar through Kaolack, Karang, Barra, Banjul, Serrekunda, Yundum, Brikama to Seleti in Casamance to terminate on Sonatel’s fibre network.

The new infrastructure will provide an alternative route to the fibre link between Basse in Gambia and Velingara in Senegal, which was implemented in 1996. As well as eliminating the serious problem of disruption to bilateral international traffic whenever the older fibre is cut, the rollout will also increase Gamtel’s international internet bandwidth. The telco said it spent EUR1.2 million (USD1.65 million) on the initial stage of the Cross Gambia Project in 2009.

Africell Now Part of Convergys Agreement

Convergys says that the Lintel Group has extended its preferred supplier relationship to provide prepaid and value-added services obtained from Convergys’ acquisition of Intervoice to Lintel’s mobile customers in West Africa. The Lintel Group provides GSM telecommunications services under the Africell name to more than 1.3 million subscribers in Sierra Leone and Gambia and has a nine-year relationship with Convergys.
Through its Relationship Technology Management business unit, Convergys is implementing additional licensing capacity and features to the Lintel Group’s prepaid platforms in Sierra Leone and Gambia to support subscriber growth and enhance the customer experience.
“Our partnership with Convergys has been one of continuous expansion over the years. Today, we are working together to solve the welcome issue of significant growth within the mobile markets the Lintel Group serves in Sierra Leone and Gambia,” said Ziad Dalloul, CEO and Chairman of the Lintel Group.
Africell Holding, Africell Gambia, Africell Sierra Leone, Africell RDC (Congo DRC), and Linfra are among Lintel group subsidiaries.