More remote areas to get telecom services
What you need to know:
Under the project, there will rural pilot tower sites.
Dar es Salaam. Tigo and Ericsson yesterday launched a joint project on mobile broadband coverage in rural areas.
Under the project, there will rural pilot tower sites.
The two have started with Chiwale and Mingumbi villages in Mtwara and Lindi respectively.
According to Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa managing director Frode Dyrdal that comes hard on the heels of a pilot infrastructure-sharing partnership to connect the over 13 million underserved individuals living in rural Tanzania. The partnership involves Tigo, Vodacom, Airtel, the government and GSMA, the last being a body representing the interests of mobile operators worldwide.
“Sharing infrastructure and engaging the government on reduced taxes in these regions will enable operators to reduce the cost of deploying mobile broadband networks in places where it was previously not viable to do so,” noted Mr Dyrdal.
Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa customer solutions manager Talib Sheriff said under the partnership Tigo had launched the first active site based on the new generation multi-standard Ericsson Radio System.
He said the suite of solutions provides the capabilities needed to reduce the total cost of ownership by up to 40 per cent when rolling out Ericsson’s total site solution for mobile broadband.
This would make investments viable in markets with low average revenue per user, according to him.
“The energy-efficient suites of solutions will also enable Tigo and their roaming partners to seamlessly identify underserved communities in the region, making it faster to introduce or improve the mobile broadband experience of their subscribers in these rural communities,” noted Mr Sheriff.
Tigo Tanzania planning head Semvua Kissenge said access to mobile broadband would open rural communities to previously elusive services such as mobile money, e-health, e-education and e-government, transforming the way people play, learn and do business.
“It is our mission to lead the adoption of the internet and a digital lifestyle in Tanzania,” Mr Kissenge said. “In these two sites, we expect to connect up to 10,000 people in a space of three months from February this year when we started offering the services in the areas.”
