The Gambia adopts national fiber protection policy

The Gambia has adopted a national fiber protection policy which aims to protect the country's fiber optic telecoms cables and minimize the level of risk to infrastructure.

Adopted during the fourth Cabinet session of 2023 last Friday, led by President Adama Barrow, the policy will address the need to minimize the country's growing fiber cuts and infrastructure vandalism.

The policy sets forth clear roles, responsibilities and obligations for all players in the fiber optic infrastructure ecosystem.

It also lays down conditions of violations and consequences for offenders engaged in fiber cuts.

Offenders can now be charged a minimum fine of half a million Gambian Dalasis (US$8,030) for any damage plus the cost to repair damaged fiber infrastructure.

The Gambia's Internet ecosystem

This new policy will improve the West African country's Internet penetration because if the infrastructure is protected, many people will have access to uninterrupted connectivity.

Furthermore, the policy should help improve the country's Internet penetration rates by connecting the underserved.

Statistics from Datareportal show that there were 903,900 Internet users in The Gambia at the start of 2023, which is an Internet penetration rate of just 33%.

The Gambia's national fiber protection policy means that citizens will be charged a fine for any damage plus the cost to repair fiber infrastructure. (Source: Image by www.slon.pics on Freepik)

As per GSMA Intelligence, The Gambia was home to 2.86 million cellular mobile active connections in January 2023, equating to 104.6%% of the total population.

Furthermore, the number of mobile connections in The Gambia increased by 110,000, or 4%, between 2022 and 2023.

As per Kepios analysis, The Gambia's Internet users increased by 22,000 between 2022 and 2023.

The Gambia's mobile mix

The new fiber policy can also work in conjunction with mobile connectivity options provided by the country's telecoms operators.

According to statistics from Omdia, a sister company of Connecting Africa, Africell Gambia had the highest estimated number of mobile subscribers at the end of March 2023, with almost 1.6 million users, or 46% market share.

The telco is followed by QuantumNet with 836,270 subscribers and 24.2% country share. Gamcel followed with 509,210 subscribers, a 14.7% country share and close behind is Comium Gambia with 481,010 users or 13.9% market share.

The smallest operator, Gamtel had just 38,620 mobile users, or just over 1% of the country share.

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*Top image source: Image by Freepik.

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa