Traffic on pilot rural radio network in Sierra Leone

A small pilot low cost radiotelephone network was recently installed in the Bonthe District of Sierra Leone to demonstrate the need that ordinary villagers, fishermen, and farmers have for telecommunications. In order to minimize the costs of servicing and maintaining the equipment, villagers were involved in the installation and maintenance of the sets as far as possible. The Bonthe District is an area which has a large proportion of coastal swamps and very few roads. Transport is mainly by boat, and communications were very poor, and this is felt to have contributed to lack of development in the area in recent years. The same problems exist, though, to a greater or lesser extent in many other parts of developing countries, and it is felt that telecommunications deserves a much higher prominence in development planning for rural areas of developing countries than has so far been the case