Strive Masiyiwa to link rural areas

Strive Masiyiwa s Econet has teamed up with Google s parent company to roll out new wireless technology to connect rural and outlying areas in Africa at a fraction of the cost. Econet is Zimbabwe s biggest mobile network operator, which now operates a range of businesses related to internet connectivity, fintech and solar energy across more than 20 countries in Africa.

Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet has teamed up with Google’s parent company to roll out new wireless technology to connect rural and outlying areas in Africa at a fraction of the cost.

Econet is Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile network operator, which now operates a range of businesses related to internet connectivity, fintech and solar energy across more than 20 countries in Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s internet penetration is at 26%, according to global telecoms body GSMA, a sign that companies find little commercial logic in setting up network coverage in sparsely populated areas.

The poor broadband coverage in far-flung areas in SA, where about 35% of the population lives, has put the industry dominated by MTN, Vodacom and Telkom in regulatory crosshairs with the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), which says it will use the next spectrum auction, slated for 2021, to ensure underserviced areas have access to broadband services.

In an interview, Tony Pretorius, COO of Distributed Power Africa, a division of Econet, told Business Day that rural connectivity “is one of our sweet-spot areas that we are targeting”.

The company, which is working with X, a unit of Google’s parent group Alphabet, says it has started work to connect more people in rural and outlying areas by bringing down the cost of building such networks. X has started a project called Taara to “bring affordable and abundant high-speed internet access to unconnected and under-connected areas”.

Modern telecoms networks are usually linked using fibre that normally runs underground. Taara’s wireless optical communication links use beams of light to deliver internet connectivity over long distances, between 10km and 20km.

Pretorius said this technology complements fibre networks.

“It can go where fibre can’t go easily. One of the ideas we’re looking at is to traverse the Congo River from Kinshasa to Brazzaville. That’s about 4km-5km between the two cities. And it’s perfect for that.

“We don’t have to go through the logistical and cost hassles of trying to run fibre under the river. We can just shoot an infrared laser across it,” said Pretorius.

“This offers a cheaper and quicker solution,” but Pretorius does acknowledge “the reality of the technology is that it doesn’t give you the reliability of fibre,” explaining why for outlying areas it is better than connecting critical data centres or network towers in urban areas.

Norman Moyo, executive head for new enterprises at Econet, said “it also has to do with connecting mining towns or communities that are highly populated but where digging fibre is like mission impossible. Because those areas are highly populated, the demand for bandwidth is equally high” but the complexity keeps many network operators from deploying fibre and maintaining it.

“It really leapfrogs some of the physical and structural challenges of digging and looking after fibre. With a lot of poor broadband connectivity on the continent, the cost of infrastructure is going to be impacted positively with the rollout of this technology,” he said.

Moyo says this helps reduce the cost of mobile data, which can improve internet access. They were still exploring how to monetise these new networks but were likely to partner with local internet service providers, or small business owners where Wi-Fi hotspots are created at hairdressers, for example, that people in an area can access.

Through its telecoms infrastructure business, Liquid Telecom,

Econet has built Africa’s largest independent fibre network stretching more than 70,000km, and operates data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi.

The group plans to roll out the technology after Liquid Telecom’s network, starting in Kenya, followed by Zimbabwe, Zambia and SA, Moyo said. Liquid Telecom and X have been running pilot tests of the technology in Kenya since 2019.

Pretorius said they can save up to 10 times the capital expenditure it would normally take to build a network in a remote area. Costs may vary depending on the project. In a country where Vodacom and MTN have typically spent R10bn annually to build and expand their networks, the savings could be material.

With decreased costs, an operator can still make its margins at lower prices to consumers, said Pretorius.

“Now the models work where we can actually create businesses with ARPU’s [average revenue per user] that are below $2 (R30.50). Traditionally $4 is your magical threshold in Africa. We can now get those prices down because our investment requirements have decreased,” he said.