Mount Barclay — Residents of Jlazon, Light and Israel communities in Mount Barclay have appealed to telecommunications companies to install cellphone signal towers to improve network coverage in their areas.
According to them, they sometimes have to climb trees to make calls. “Whenever there is need to make a call, we go up the mountain just to access the network and the question is ‘until when?’” one resident said.
Another resident said poor network coverage had also affected learners. “School-going children are required to do task related education which requires one to have access to the internet, but in this case it’s unfortunate because there is no network. This also applies to those who are doing business. A transaction can’t be made because there is no network connection.”
According to residents, there has been poor network coverage after the only Lonestar signal tower developed a fault.
“I don’t understand why Lone Star company, who came to Liberia long before Orange GSM company, has very poor connections on our end. I have to climb this butter pear tree or sometimes climb in a mango tree just to get small network,” says Junior Wine, a resident of Jlahzon Light Community.
The Lone Star GSM company, which claims to be having the largest wireless communications service in Liberia, has little or no coverage in communities beyond Mount Barclay in Montserrado County. Communities such as: Jlazon, Nimba United, Iron Bridge, Wakkor, Israel, New Jerusalem, Canaan Land communities, are all suffering the same poor coverage. For this reason, many people using Lone Star network in these areas have expressed frustration and opting to switch to Orange GSM, which has stronger services in these areas.
Lonestar GSM had posted on August 5, informing the public a planned outage in order to upgrade their network, however, they did not mention Mount Barclay.
“These outages are being carried out to enable us undertake major network upgrades, involving stringing of transmission lines and erections of poles.”
Lone Star GSM Company owns and operates the largest wireless telecommunication network in Liberia, with 48%of the market share in 2011, and Founded in 2000 by Beirut-base company.