Sierra Leone Cable Limited (SALCAB) is set to be unbundled into a national digital institutional framework, incorporating a national advisory council on digital development to be led by the Presidency. SALCAB, a special purpose vehicle company established to support the country’s telecommunications and enhance access to communications, has been in operation for eight years. Minister...
President Julius Maada Bio, through the Ministry of Information and Communications, has on Friday, April 24th, fully kick started his agenda of digitalizing the entire Sierra Leone as promised in the last elections campaign of 2017.
The government of Sierra Leone, via the country’s telecommunications industry regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM), has introduced a new floor price for telecommunications services – a move that has not gone down well with subscribers. According to NATCOM, the floor price for all voice calls (including promotions, bonuses and bundles) will be Le590 per...
Since March 6, 2020, the floor price of 590 leones ($ 0.061) has been applicable on the minute of calls to all mobile operators. The National Telecommunication Commission (Natcom) of Sierra Leone calls on Orange, Africell, Qcell and Sierratel to respect it. To this end, it sent a letter to the Chairman and CEO of each...
Sierra Leone’s National Telecommunication Commission (NATCOM) has called on the country’s Central Bank to develop a stronger regulatory framework to secure mobile payment, which is not under its jurisdiction but which affects the telecom companies which it guarantees. Faced with the progressive dynamism of Mobile Money, the telecom regulator also wanted to draw the Central Bank’s...
Nanotechnology, blockchain, cloud computing: Sierra Leone’s President Bio is banking on the most advanced technology to leapfrog the country out of poverty. In a recent Facebook photo, President Julius Maada Bio proudly holds a small but high-tech piece of equipment. The device, called MinION, is a portable and relatively cheap DNA and RNA sequencer which...
Sierra Leone has confirmed a US$30-million loan agreement to finance its contract with Huawei for the second phase of its National Fibre Optic Backbone Project. During this phase of the project, fibre cables will be installed in unconnected regions and enable MNOs and ISPs to expand their capacity and offer 3G and 4G services. The...
The Director General of Sierra Leone’s National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM), Maxwell Massaquoi, signed on 26 April 2019 an MoU with telecommunications regulatory heads from Liberia, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire that aims to implement the One Area Network initiative. Once this plan has been put into effect, mobile phone users visiting the signatory countries would be able to...
Following a technical audit, it is alleged that Sierra Leone’s telecom regulator NATCOM promoted favouritism and unfair competition within the telecommunications industry between January 2015 and July 2018. This is understood to have cost the country approximately US$68-million. The full audit report was prepared by members of the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions...
Ericsson and Orange launch 4G network in Sierra Leone in the nation’s capital, Freetown, on 27 March 2019, which will be providing its residents with fast and reliable 4G access. Orange will use Ericsson Radio System products and solutions to offer 4G in 60 sites, which is designed for low latency and fast mobile broadband...
