Nokia Siemens Networks reveals its Village Connection

WITH AROUND half the world's population living in villages, and the UN predicting that the next billion people around the world to connect to the internet will come from rural areas, there's a significant drive from the ICT industry to find an affordable, yet profitable business model for wireless communications for rural villagers.

Linda Khumalo

Nokia Siemens Networks is the latest to unveil its solution for rural connectivity, in this case a network infrastructure solution that enables IP connectivity for underserviced areas.

Speaking at the launch in Midrand last week, Linda Khumalo, the head of Nokia Siemens Networks' southern African sub-region, said that the solution allows rural connectivity to be built village-by-village.

The Village Connection, as it is known, comprises GSM access points and regional access centres located in villages. Each access point can handle call control and completion for up to 80 subscribers within a village. Up to 200 access points in different villages aggregate to an access centre, which handles call completion within a particular region.

Khumalo explained that the Village Connection operates on a franchise-based business model that provides business and job opportunities for underserviced areas.

The model includes a local entrepreneur, who hosts a mobile access point, and a regional GSM operator, which aggregates the traffic between different villages and provides external connectivity to Village Connection subscribers.

Khumalo informs iWeek that Nokia Siemens Networks will be rolling out a pilot project with the national ICT research institute, the CSIR's Meraka Institute in the Eastern Cape before year-end. "The costs of the project are still being worked out," he added.