Not surprisingly, two-thirds of the stories in this week's e-letter are Covid-19 related. As with the ebola, the latest health crisis shines a light on the need to connect
Hard-to-reach rural areas were for many years the poor relative of the MNO's core business. Indeed some MNOs were happy to say quietly that they had no intention of expanding coverage areas. So what has changed? There are now a series of niche vendors who can deliver cheaper base stations. Solar panel power has become cheaper and more reliable. Satellite prices - once a major cost for remote sites - have now come down considerably.
The dam burst last autumn when the
At the time, Group Executive, Network Design & Planning, MTN Group Navindran Naidoo told Tower Exchange how it would work.
"We are interested in the role that independent telecom tower companies (towercos) can play in enhancing rural connectivity. Leasing space on towers could be an important enabler of investment in rural and ultra-rural areas. However, the leasing model is unlikely to be operable in ultra-ultra rural areas where low ARPUs will be unable to support more than one operator. Sharing infrastructure is an option for reducing the cost of roll-out and OPEX too".
Sadly towerco's have largely functioned as vehicles for offshoring CAPEX and have not had a large role to play in this space so far. However, things may change... but I wouldn't hold your breath.
"For backhaul we expect to use a variety of technologies. In rural sites we have specified microwave backhaul as these sites should not be too far away from our existing network. For ultra-ultra-rural sites, we have specified optimised Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) backhaul. Ultra-rural sites will see a mixture of the two solutions".
"The towers will also differ from site to site. At normal rural sites, shareable macro towers will be used; at ultra-rural sites we expect shorter towers of between 10m and 20m. While at ultra-ultra rural sites, we are leaving the details of the structure to our vendors to propose depending on what they think will work best".
"We don't only need sites which have a low-cost bill of materials, but we need structures with minimal maintenance and a quick implementation timeline. It should take up to a week to erect a rural site, but our ultra-ultra rural sites should be complete in a day or two".
"We think offering data and internet connectivity is essential. Even at our ultra-ultra rural sites we want to be able to offer at least 3G levels of connectivity".
Alongside this large carrier initiative, the GSMA ran a competition for Connected Society Innovation Grants. In
"This collaboration is ground-breaking in its aims to connect unconnected communities in rural locations and deliver a range of essential digital services," said
Both of these initiatives are in danger of being delayed by the Covid-19 crisis. They face significant supply chain difficulties and research and testing in the labs has been slowed down as initially people work from home:"We're trying to import batteries and other equipment from
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