Talk about a win-win situation: a small telecom company seizes on an opportunity to step into a perfect business void, developing a broadband network where none exists, and where customer demand is on the rise. Meanwhile, a nation with just one landline for every 250 people gets expanded access to inexpensive, reliable communication.
What might sound rather too good to be true is, in fact, a reality, made possible in part by the efforts of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee AgencyMIGAa member of the World Bank Group.
Israeli telecommunications company Sierra-Com is bringing high-speed broadband wireless Internet and voice over IP communications (allowing phone calls to be made over the Internet) to Sierra Leone.
Sierra-Coms subsidiary in Sierra Leone, IPTEL (PCS Holdings Sierra Leone Limited), has already started commercial operation and sales of its broadband Internet service and is signing up new customers every day. Prior to IPTELs entry into the marketplace, the only Internet access was a slow dial-up service provided by a state-owned utility, which has been plagued by poor management and broken infrastructure; and by a narrowband private Internet service provider whose service was prone to stoppages due to electricity shortages.
Sierra-Coms $3 million investment will establish a network using technologically advanced telecom equipment imported from Israel.
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