By Madi Jobarteh
Africa-Press – Gambia. On its website, PURA defined its functions as thus, “To facilitate PURA’s regulation of public utilities, section 13(1) of The Gambia Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Act, 2001 (among other things) mandates PURA to provide guidelines on and examine rates and fees for the provision of regulated public services; protect the interest of consumers and of public utilities; monitor and enforce standards of performance by public utilities; and promote fair competition among public utilities.”
The people established PURA to serve the interest of the people by ensuring that businesses provide quality and affordable products and services. Consumers are not meant to be used and misused by mobile network operators and public utility providers as they have been doing. Unfortunately, since inception in 2001, PURA has not been protecting and serving consumers as effectively and properly as required by the law. Rather it has always protected businesses against consumers.
Since the introduction of telephony and internet services in The Gambia, what is evident is that these companies continue to make profits year by year. Yet as they make profits from the people, consumers continue to suffer poor and expensive services which are also not readily available in every part of the country. There is no mobile network operator – Gamcel, Africell, Comium, and Qcell – which provides high quality services in every inch of the country.
The Gambian terrain is not challenging for any service provider. The country is a short, tiny piece of land divided by a navigable river. It is less than 500km in length and 80km in breadth at its widest points. There are no mountains, nor do we experience unending torrential rainfall or snowfall, hurricanes, or earthquakes in this country. The Gambia is not an island in the Atlantic Ocean like Cape Verde nor is it landlocked like Mali. Practically there are no natural barriers that will impose huge costs on any telephone and internet service provider.
Yet, service providers have refused to adequately invest in telecommunications and technology infrastructure, knowledge, and skills in order to ensure highly effective and efficient products and services. It is common to face difficulties in telephone connectivity and communications at any time and on all networks. Internet is generally weak such that livestreaming, videoconferencing, online calls or uploading or downloading of audio and video materials are generally difficult. In many parts of the country such services are even impossible.
There are many communities in this country where people have to climb a tree or stand on top of a hill or wait until a certain time of the day or night before they can get a good reception. These unfortunate experiences of consumers are a result of the failure of GSM and internet service providers to invest in their infrastructure, products, and services to ensure that customers enjoy quality services and value for their money. PURA should have prevented these terrible realities but failed.
By now PURA should have developed necessary standards in mobile network to ensure that customers are obtaining excellent service just as we experience when we visit Senegal, Ghana, or UK. Regardless of where one is in Senegal, you do not only enjoy excellent connectivity but also reasonable cost for the use of internet. Why is The Gambia different?
The evidence of PURA’s inefficiency and disregard of customer interest while supporting businesses is their current decision to introduce ‘temporary floor prices for mobile data services.’ The new prices they impose do not make any difference for customers but protect the business. This is because well before today customers have been facing poor network services. PURA has never addressed that even though they have received uncountable calls through their hotline as well as heard consumers express frustration in their Bantaba events.
Therefore, if GSM companies are engaged in a cut-throat tariff competition which has lowered costs for customers, one would think that PURA would rather insist that these companies enhance their quality and allow the price to go down. Failing to do that but seeking to stop the tariff competition means PURA is only interested in securing profit by GSM companies and not quality and cost for consumers. The tariff competition is about costs and profit for these companies. What about cost and quality for consumers? What is PURA doing about that?
PURA should serve consumers first and foremost by ensuring that consumers enjoy value for money in the products and services they buy. Consumers need quality services which these businesses are not providing. This is what should concern PURA. If not, let the current PURA be dismantled and, in its place, a new entity that is fit for purpose is created.
For The Gambia, Our Homeland.
Source: The Standard Newspaper | Gambia
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