The Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Cable Limited (SALCAB), Ishmael Kebbay Jr., has, in November, 2018, just after few months in office, said in Freetown that the Sierra Leone Cable Limited has re-engineered the business models of the submarine and the terrestrial infrastructure, which has enabled them to churn out a 48% reduction in the cost of bandwidth for IP transit and IP lease circuits, respectively.
Engineer Kebbay made this disclosure while addressing pressmen in their Lumley office in Freetown on Friday 23 November, 2018, where they also launched their new national fiber bundles, adding that these offerings will allow their clients to ride on the fiber cable to connect their back haul base stations and enhance transmission and distribution of data.
Sierra Leone has over 1,000km of fiber optic cables running from Freetown to Gendema, from Masiaka to Gbalamuya, and from Makeni to Kono and everybody in Sierra Leone should be able to enjoy fast and cheap internet.
One expects that such an announcement would have had a corresponding impact on the mobile subscribers. The ultimate aim of such a fantastic move by SALCAB under the leadership of Engineer Kebbay and his astute Chairman Board of Directors was to have a trickling effect on the prices of data bundles.
But almost four (4) months after the announcement by SALCAB, the Regulator National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) has made little or no moves to ensure that mobile network providers adjust their prices to match the SALCAB reduction.
The emergence of Qcell in the mobile market has witnessed a commitment by Orange during the launching of their 4G service that they will increase their data bundles by 50 % with the same prices.
The commitment by Orange Sierra Leone to increase 50% of the bundle rates, after SALCAB has announced the bandwidth reduction some four months ago, is in itself a failure on the part of the regulator to do their job of ensuring that subscribers get efficient services.
The Mobile Network Operators, on their part, have exploited the complacency of the regulator and hell bent on exploiting the subscribers with very high prices and poor quality services.
One could now sense that opening up the market to more players would do more good for the numerous subscribers. This direction is one that is highly favoured by the New Direction Government of President Bio.
President Bio has campaigned on the need to achieve a highly inclusive rural connectivity through very strong private partnership collaboration. It is against such a backdrop that Government should not fall foul of the activities of these mobile network operators who are hell bent on cheating the people of Sierra Leone.
Like the NATCOM of the previous regime, the current administration of Maxwell Hinga Massaquoi should not fall prey to these companies but should pursue rigorous reforms that will countenance change in the sector.
It is no secret that the people of Sierra Leone have been far too exploited by these mobile companies, especially Orange, which happens to be the first to venture into the country.
Government should not fall for their various interventions in some development sectors, as it falls within their corporate social responsibility programs. This will now lure them to misuse the subscribers for which their businesses exist for.
We are calling for a total New Direction at NATCOM just as envisaged in other sectors.
As SALCAB Achieves 48% Reduction In Bandwidth Prices… Orange Sierra Leone Stands Accused Of Manipulation
