The staff of The Gambia Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) have recently embarked on a countrywide trek to get firsthand information on network coverage of all technologies and inspection of telecommunications infrastructure (mast and towers) installed countrywide to examine their compliance with the regulatory standards.
The site inspection that commenced from March to April 2022 accorded the team the opportunity to establish firsthand the availability of certain recommended standards such as reflective painting, telecom tower red safety light, grounding and lightning protection for all towers and masts.
The visit also enabled the Authority to assess the quality of utility services such as internet download speed, GSM signal quality, network coverage, call drop rate and call set-up success rate by an operator per technologies (2G, 3G and 4G LTE).
Consequently, the Authority will analyse the outcome and write a report to be shared with the operators with recommendations geared towards improving the quality of network services delivered to the public. This Quality of Service (QoS) will be continuously monitored using the just enhanced QoS monitoring system to ensure implementation of the recommendations made.
The new equipment that was recently procured by the Authority was put to use and showed a real impact. The Authority will continue such activities regularly to ensure better services and avail solutions to the entire population of The Gambia no matter how remotely located.
