Zoom Wireless and Volo have partnered to bring high-speed Internet access to Northern Uganda. There’s a lot of innovation going on in this story, although that may surprise you given the location.
Let’s start with Volo. Its state mission is enabling Internet service providers to bring low-cost broadband to emerging markets around the world. Led by Mark Summer and Kristin Peterson, it brings a wealth of experience to its solution. Previously it was involved in Inveneo, a nonprofit social organization whose goal is to bring sustainable computing and broadband technology to the developing world. In addition to having the real world experience in developing markets, it also brings Silicon Valley tech know-how to the solution.
So why is Volo’s solution different? It’s based on Wi-Fi. Its customers are ISPs deploying in these tough market conditions. By using a Wi-Fi solution it claims it can not only reduce the cost of deployment tenfold, but it can also reduce deployment time from months to weeks.
Zoom Wireless is a young ISP in Uganda and Volo’s first customer. It is part of SINFA Uganda and not even 1 year old. Founded earlier this year, its specific area of focus is in Gulu in Northern Uganda. By partnering with Volo, it was able to launch broadband services in less than 12 weeks. The network runs on a fiber backbone with cloud-based management software and a carrier-grade Wi-Fi last mile. This deployment scenario required 10 times less capital then a traditional LTE network deployment.
Offers are available for corporate customers ranging up to nine megabits per second and residential/small business customers with 512 kilobits per second, 1 Mbps and 3 Mbps options. There are no usage caps and the cost to the end user is 50% less than that of competitors in the region. Although these speeds seem slow by developed nation standards, the ability to change lives with this access is key to regions like Northern Uganda.
One example of how this service has made an impact can already be seen with SINFA Uganda’s Microwork division. It was an early trial customer who started using the service in July. In just one month it was able to double its work output productivity. This not only allows it to perform more work, but it enables the company to justify additional jobs to employ more workers.
It’s not all about LTE to change lives in these regions.
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