· Internet

My Internet setup in the Gambia: Making 4Mbps work

When people hear I work remotely as a developer from The Gambia, the first question is usually about the internet. Fair enough — it's the thing that makes or breaks remote work here.

Here's my current setup, what it costs, and the workarounds I've found.

The hardware

My internet comes through an Alcatel R219t mobile modem connected to Qcell, one of the local carriers. The modem connects to a FRITZ Repeater 1200AX, which handles Wi-Fi distribution throughout my apartment. The FRITZ Repeater is overkill for the bandwidth, but it gives me reliable dual-band coverage and a stable connection to my MacBook Pro.

The numbers

  • Speed: Around 4Mbps down, 1-2Mbps up on a good day
  • Data cap: 400GB per month
  • Cost: Roughly 4,000 GMD (~€50) per month

That 400GB sounds generous until you factor in macOS updates (often 3-5GB), Xcode downloads, npm installs, and Docker images. I've learned to be deliberate about what I download and when.

What works

Video calls are possible but not comfortable. I keep my camera off for most meetings and that helps. Git operations work fine — code is small. Text-based AI tools like Claude are ideal because they're lightweight. Streaming is workable at 480p.

What doesn't

Large file syncing is painful. I've stopped using iCloud Photos over cellular. Software updates need planning — I batch them and run them overnight. Any cloud IDE or remote desktop solution is unusable at this latency.

The power situation

Internet reliability is only half the story. NAWEC, the national utility, provides power that regularly drops out — sometimes for hours. The voltage sits around 160-180V instead of the standard 220V. My MacBook Pro runs off a powerbank during outages, which gives me several extra hours of work. The modem runs on its own battery for about 4 hours.

Would I recommend it?

For development work? Yes, with patience. The key is choosing tools and workflows that work offline-first or at least degrade gracefully on slow connections. Statamic's flat-file architecture, for example, means I can develop this entire blog without any network connection at all.

I'll write more about the specific tools and workflows that work well in this environment.