Challenge
Airtel, the leading telecom operator in Sierra Leone committed itself to providing GSM coverage for a number of residential and industrial settlements located at the outskirts of Frengbeyha mountain (Bum Buna region, Northern Sierra Leone) close to the iron ore exploration sites of "African Minerals" one of the most important companies extracting iron ore from Sierra Leone mountains, to cover the whole area a GSM base station had to be built in a unique location on top of the mountain that rises 1000 m above sea level, the base station required moving up more than 10 tons of materials and telecom equipment, laying a concrete foundation, assembly and erection of a 4 legged 70 m tower in addition to installation & commissioning of GSM telecom equipment. With no defined roads, no means of communication, lack of electric power, rough terrain, wild plantation, fog, heat and humidity; real creativity and lots of hard work had to be done to get the station up and running

Solution
Alkan team had to manually clear a 3m wide passage up through the mountain, cutting trees and bushes across the wild forests then using the cut tree trunks as slides for gliding up 10 tons of materials and equipment including the de-assembled tower, the shelter, steel angles, 4000 liter fuel tank, generator, BTS, cables, feeders, GSM & Microwave antennae, in addition to the mixer, sand, gravel, cement and water. Pullies were fixed around giant trees and ropes used to pull materials up. On top of the mountain manual digging of 108 rnJ of rocks had to be done before being able to lay the concrete platform of the base station and eventually erecting the tower that provided coverage for the whole area

Key Benefits

• Successful site construction for GSM tower in a unique location
• Introducing voice & data Services for around 4000 residents and professionals
• Achieving customer satisfaction
• Facilitating communications and daily operations for African Minerals
• Increased revenues due to new subscriptions
• Providing Internet connectivity for a previously deprived area