Alieu,

The Gamcel GSM does support roaming. However, I understand that roaming will
only be made available to customers in a few months time. The other
facilities also mentioned by others such as the small message service are
also available. I also understand that Gamcel have signed roaming agreement
with two companies whose membership runs into several dozen operators. As
Yus pointed out, the main benifit of a GSM service is its roaming facility
and as such this was the main motivating factor for launching the GSM
service in the Gambia.

With regards to roaming between Gambia and Senegal, I understand that this
will not be done. I understand that the main reason is that it will be
cheaper for the citizens of both countries to secure SIM cards from the host
country and use it with your set when you travel to that country. In the
Gambia, SIM cards cost D300.00 if you buy your set from Gamcel or you are an
existing Gamtel analogue customer and D500.00 if you buy your set from
elsewhere. The scratch cards used to replenish your prepaid units are in
denominations of D50.00, D100.00, D150.00 and D300.00. The D50.00 and
D100.00 cards allow you to receive calls up to 60 days even when all your
units have expired. The other denominations allow you to continue to receive
calls up to 90 days after the expiry of your cards.

Mr. Gai thanks for the clarification on the congestion issue complained by
some. It is very unjust to suggest that Gamtel's services are deteriorating.
As a matter of fact there is no place in the Gambia where you will have to
travel more than 12 KMs without having access to a phone, fax or internet
service. It is also a fact that Gamtel has ranked in the first 3 best
operators in Africa for the past ten years. The only countries that have
ever surpassed Gamtel has been South Africa and Botswana. I hope the
additional info will be of some help.

Have a good day and bye 4Now, KB Jobe.
>
>----Original Message Follows----
>From: Alieu Bah <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
> ><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: GSM in The Gambia
>Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 18:24:50 -0000
>
>Jobe,
>
>Thank you for the information. You are right that Europe uses 900Mhz
>frequency but most of them if not all support dual bands nowadays i.e.
> >both
>900 and 1800Mhz.
>
>America operates in the 1900 MHz range frequency as Mr Sillah already
> >said.
>
>One of the advantages of GSM is roaming, do you know if there is any
>possibilties for a subscriber of a different operator,say from Senegal
>(which is also GSM 900Mhz I presume) can use his or her mobile phone >in
>the
>Gambia? Technically, this is possible in GSM technolgy, provided both
>operators transmit within the same frequency range.
>Interestingly, I learnt that this feature is not supported by Gambia's
> >GSM.
>Why and how, I am yet to comprehend. Is it possible to verify this >info
>for
>me, please?
>
>Too bad the GSM in The Gambia is not provided by Nokia (the >heavyweight in
>GSM technolgy), just joking...:0)
>
>Thanks once again.
>
>Alieu
>
>

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------