Zambia’s rural areas get connected
Wireless communication specialist Multisource Telecoms was set to roll out 20 low-cost, compact solar- and battery-powered Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, towers into rural regions of Zambia.
The South Africa-based group would source the radio access network base stations from US-based wireless telecommunications group Vanu.
Multisource secured the contract following a pilot project, which showed that the cost and maintenance of the compact base stations were considerably lower than that of traditional macro base stations, CEO Richard Smuts-Steyn said in a statement.
The compact stations would be installed on the rooftops of local businesses, community centres, local churches or low-cost radio masts.
“The decision to extend GSM network coverage to Zambia’s isolated rural areas followed a call by the country’s telecommunications regulatory authority for network operators to fulfil their universal service obligations,” he explained.
He pointed out that 37% of the population, or almost 5.1-million Zambians, were currently not subscribed to a mobile network.
“Capital expenditure on individual macro base stations and large power generators make rural communications prohibitive. This problem is further exacerbated by maintenance, running and security costs that inevitably run into the tens of thousands of US dollars in annual operational expenses,” Smuts-Steyn explained.
Compact base stations were a “particularly apt solution” to the constraints inherent in rural areas, he commented.
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