Congo’s rural communities are set to benefit from mobile and fixed telephony services following a partnership between ip.access and RascomStar- QAF.
The ip.access small cells will be deployed in around 50 sites throughout the country with one gateway in the capital.
RascomStar-QAF will deliver mobile coverage and fixed telephony access for IPX Extenso in collaboration with ViaSat and ip.access to the Republic of Congo’s remote
The firm will also supply end-to-end remote and rural solutions like phone boxes, remote base stations and its own VSAT terminals – all connected to the operator’s core network by satellite backhaul.
Also following the partnership, the service will use ip.access small cells and gateway technology to deliver mobile coverage and services directly into the heart of the remote communities.
The pilot, set to begin by August although the full project will begin in 2012, will be in at least ten more countries in the central African region.
Faraj Elamari, CEO of RascomStar-QAF commented: “Our services were developed to provide affordable universal access telephony in rural and remote areas and have a particular role to play serving low ARPU communities. Together with our partners, we believe that we have designed a service that meets the needs of a region underserved by mobile and indeed fixed telephony.”
Simon Brown, CEO of ip.access, also applauded the service saying working closely with the firm’s partners has helped create an end-to-end system by using “our expertise in small cell deployments to bring voice and Internet access to previously unconnected parts of the world at a price-point they can afford. It’s a great project to be part of and we look forward to its expansion into other African countries.”
ip.access Ltd is headquartered in Cambridge, UK. Its range of small cell — picocell and femtocell — solutions for 3G, EDGE GSM and LTE deployments combine IP and wireless technologies and help cut operational costs, increase coverage and the capacity of the networks and has Amadeus Capital Partners, Cisco, Intel Capital, Qualcomm, Rothschild, Scottish Equity Partners and TE Connectivity among its shareholders.
RascomStar-QAF works with VIASAT Inc, a global ground equipment vendor, to build low-cost rural stations.
IPX Extenso is a Mauritius-based, Active Infrastructure Operator, specialised in network extension to rural and low-density areas for partnering Mobile Network Operators. The firm leases its vertically integrated infrastructure to provide turnkey services to operators willing to extend their network coverage to rural and low-density areas.
