Guinea Conakry

The West Coast of Africa is home to abundant natural resources. While these resources have the potential to bring widespread prosperity to the region, too often the benefits have been felt by only a minority. However, recent years have seen a real shift in the way the world does business, a shift which is having a significant effect on the West African economy.
New wireless communications technologies allow companies to communicate and connect instantly with their partners and share business critical information, thus bringing real commercial benefits to those companies and individuals with access to these kinds of technologies. Meanwhile, large scale organizations and joint ventures that develop natural resources in Africa are heavily dependent on the level of infrastructure in general, and on communications infrastructure in particular, thus pushing the issue even higher up the agenda.
In this context it is clear that developing effective, reliable, robust communications infrastructures is of crucial importance to the West African economy, as illustrated by the example of the Republic of Guinea – also known as Guinea-Conakry. As things stand the country’s system of open-wire lines, small radiotelephone communication stations and microwave radio relays is incapable of meeting today’s communications needs. While the capital Conakry is reasonably well served, coverage elsewhere remains sporadic and large companies tend to rely on their own systems for nationwide links.
It is this situation which has prompted a cellular operator new to Guinea- Conakry to turn to the MER Telecom – a global wireless solutions integrator – to implement cellular network infrastructure capable of providing optimal coverage of both the urban and rural areas of Guinea-Conakry. As linking city and countryside will help the company provide the widest coverage possible, this is a goal crucial to the prospects of the operator, a goal which will have the knock-on effect of boosting business development in the rest of the country. However, this is far from being the only benefit such infrastructures offer. Those who have migrated from rural areas to the capital in search of work are always keen to stay in touch with their roots. While in the past those who moved away from rural areas were resigned to spending long periods isolated from their friends and family, new technology infrastructures allow individuals to both pursue their own ambitions and also maintain the relationships most important to them. Demonstrating that the two are not mutually exclusive is fundamentally important to Africa’s future prospects.
As such the work of companies like the Mer Telecom is taking on increasing importance. The company’s ability to provide end-to-end Wireless Infrastructure Turnkey Solutions – ranging from  wireless network planning, site design and provision of telecom towers, right through to site construction, equipment installation,  network optimization and maintenance– in countries across the globe, including Latin America and Africa, makes their services highly sought after. It is this kind  of broad-based expertise which can playa large part in assisting West Africa to realize its economic potential.

 
Developing robust infrastructure
Situated on the West African coast Guinea-Conakry, like many of its neighbors, has access to significant mineral wealth. Nevertheless, the need for robust communications infrastructures linking urban and rural areas remains acute, particularly given the rapidly evolving nature of the country’s telecommunications market. In fact, it was recently estimated that the country has no less than five mobile phones for every land line, a situation which makes great demands of the underlying infrastructure. The Mer Telecom’s advanced expertise and extensive knowledge of the African market – garnered from their work in successful projects in East and West Africa – makes them ideally suited to the task of providing full turnkey solutions to the country’s new cellular operator.
Developing the 110 cellular sites across the country stipulated by the operator – including 66 in the capital Conakry and 44 in rural areas – was a technologically complex task, one not made any easier by the challenges posed by the natural environment itself. The company has had to find creative ways of dealing with problems like, the need to work on remote sites and poor road infrastructure, all while enjoying only limited access to heavy machinery.
However, the company’s strong presence in Africa, which combines the in-depth regional knowledge of its local partners with the corporate engineering expertise synonymous with the Mer Telecom name, leaves them well-placed to address these kinds of issues.
The challenges posed by the fact that the telecommunications industry is multi-disciplinary are difficult to overstate. Offering effective services is only possible if companies have close relationships with those in complementary areas.
This is even more acute when operating in a new market, something of which the Mer Telecom is well aware. The company strives to add regional knowledge by working with local personnel (both technical and others). All the projects are supported by a highly qualified project management and well developed logistic chain in order to provide seamless supplies of telecom towers and other materials.
The twin issues of providing the majority of the working network within the six-month time frame set down by the operator, and raising a working network from scratch, have also proved to be significant challenges for the company in its work in Guinea-Conakry. Nevertheless, again these were issues the company were able to negotiate, demonstrating that while their focus on technical excellence is non-negotiable they are also mindful of the business bottom line. The Mer Telecom’s solutions combine cost-effectiveness and short lead times with advanced engineering techniques – all delivered with a strong commitment to client satisfaction. With a highly developed logistics chain and advanced telecom tower manufacturing facilities, the company’s solutions are both flexible and scalable, and thus are able to provide tangible benefits for customers.
In their work with the Guinea-Conakry operator, the Mer Telecom adopted a thorough approach right from the earliest stages of the process. By identifying and addressing problems at an early stage the company ensured they could provide the kind of rigorous, reliable, technologically sophisticated solutions their customer required. During the first stage of the project, - the site acquisition - the Mer Telecom’s civil engineer accompanied the customer and a radio engineer so as to assess site feasibility from the engineering point of view. Once the contract itself had been signed a complete set of drawings was made for each site. This included telecom tower design, site location, site grounding drawings, telecom tower foundations and shelter drawings, all integral elements in the overall project.
As part of the project the Mer Telecom was tasked with the important responsibility of establishing a civil works, site construction for 110 cellular sites, telecom tower provision and also telecom equipment installation and comissioning. The end result was a reliable, working network for the operator. 
While telecommunications play an integral role in modern commerce, many remain unaware of the underlying infrastructures on which they depend. Peace of mind for the customer is all-important, and, although telecommunications is undoubtedly a complex area, the fragmentation of responsibility must be avoided if standards are to be driven up. Customers derive peace of mind from having one point of accountability – this means managing all of the subcontractors and all the activities on the way to developing a full working network.
While the Mer Telecom is proud to be a global company, it also knows that it must establish close links with local communities if it is to respond effectively to their needs. Sharing knowledge and learning from local people is a fundamental element of their overall philosophy, a philosophy that they have taken with them to West Africa. In Conakry the Mer Telecom have hired local engineers and supervisors and provided them with extensive training. This is an approach that not only maximises technical excellence, but also helps the company maintain a long-term presence in the country, something that benefits not only the Mer Telecom, but also Guinea-Conakry as a whole.