Having successfully deployed solar-powered mobile and broadband GSM networks in rural India, Vihaan Networks is looking to enter the African and Latin American markets.
According to VNL, there are an estimated 1.5 billion unconnected people in isolated rural areas around the world.
Vihaan's offering for isolated communities in emerging markets is WorldGSM, a solar-powered network hub designed for areas with average revenue per user (ARPU) of less than $2.
“Given our experience and success in India, we have been able to develop specialised equipment for GSM signal, which we now want to take to the global market in order to connect the unconnected,” says Vihaan representative Bruno Santos.
“Our main concern is areas like Africa, Latin America and some countries in Asia, and we are looking for partners in those areas. We have not started any projects in Africa as yet, but we are hoping that once we get the word out, WorldGSM will begin to spread.”
Vihaan, which belongs to Indian telecom company Shyam Networks, showcased WorldGSM at the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, last week.
Rural areas bypassed
“The evolving telecoms revolution is essentially an urban phenomenon. Rural areas with low-paying capacity and low concentration of subscribers are being bypassed,” says Vihaan.
“The problem is that it is not profitable for service providers to take their signal to those areas, because the revenue is too low and maintenance costs would be too high. We want to change that,” says Santos.
Vihaan says its customers in India have included mobile operators, infrastructure companies and system integrators. “In time, we hope to provide local entrepreneurs with micro-loans to finance WorldGSM base stations in part or in full.”
The company says WorldGSM opens up a new micro-telecom business model, where operators can partner with local entrepreneurs to accelerate deployment and reduce costs.
Solar connectivity
The solar-powered turnkey GSM system can provide up to 72 hours of connectivity in the absence of sunlight.
“The WorldGSM is designed for simple delivery and deployment by local untrained workers, and requires little to no maintenance,” says Santos.
“It extends the existing networks into areas that are considered undesirable and too costly to operate at the ARPUs that are available.”
According to Vihaan, the technology requires no cables. “We place a base station controller in the last node of the network, and build from there.”
Each unit costs roughly $20 000 and provides up to 10Mbps of connectivity.
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