When it comes to wireless technologies, it should come a no surprise that environments like mines have presented major challenges for many years. However, as these technologies improve, we are beginning to see mining operations around the world upgrading their infrastructure, thereby enabling the IoT, industrial automation…

When it comes to wireless technologies, it should come a no surprise that environments like mines have presented major challenges for many years. However, as these technologies improve, we are beginning to see mining operations around the world upgrading their infrastructure, thereby enabling the IoT, industrial automation, and autonomous mining vehicles. 

Now, Intracom Telecom has announced that it has deployed its latest FWA and IoT platform at a major mining operation in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The FWA solution, called WiBAS, uses Point-to-Multi-Point (PtMP) technology to deliver high capacity over long distances. In addition, the company is also deploying its uni|MS IoT control and management platform, which includes “a sophisticated alarm flow coupled with key performance indicators, available on reports and graphs…[to] elevate the Operators’ experience and ensure timely optimizations”.

« We have been serving our customers in Africa for their needs to connect remote location in mines since 2011. We are very pleased to extend our cooperation with one of the biggest African mines so to provide modern communications to ground crews and machine operating personnel, while safeguarding and monitoring the perimeter of the mine, » said John Tenidis, Marketing Director of Wireless Network Systems at Intracom Telecom.

Details of the mine and the mining company itself were not revealed. 

Intracom are not alone in their growing interest in mining operations. For example, late last year, Ericsson announced a plan with Russian operator MTS to deploy a 5G-ready private network at an iron ore mine in the Republic of Karelia, pledging to improve automation and site safety. 

Nokia has also announced a similar deal to supply a private network at a gold mine in Finland. 

However, it should be noted that in April Ericsson announced that it is withdrawing from the Russian market as a result of the invasion in Ukraine, so the future of its Russian mining deployment is unclear. 

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Also in the news: 
ITU’s Partner2Connect project sees $18.5 billion in pledges to connect the unconnected
Telefonica strikes deal with German fibre association to connect 5G sites
Enterprise data opportunities in the 5G era

Spain has definitively approved updates to its General Law on Telecommunications, finally bringing it in line with the requirements of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), over a year and a half after the 2021 deadline.
To recap, the EECC, agreed back in 2018, called on all EU nations to codify into law various measures that would create a singular regulatory framework and provide better protection for internet users throughout Europe…

Spain has definitively approved updates to its General Law on Telecommunications, finally bringing it in line with the requirements of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), over a year and a half after the 2021 deadline.

To recap, the EECC, agreed back in 2018, called on all EU nations to codify into law various measures that would create a singular regulatory framework and provide better protection for internet users throughout Europe. In line with the EU’s connectivity targets for 2030, these measures included ensuring that 5G spectrum was made available to operators by the end of 2020; simplifying regulations surrounding fibre network rollout to thereby increase investment; and better protecting customers, including ensuring universal access to the internet, better security, and more transparent tariffs. 

The 2020 deadline came and went, with numerous countries throughout the union, including Spain, were still dragging their feet when it came to updating their legislation. In fact, such changes had still not taken place by April 2022, when the EU Commission referred ten member states (Spain, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden) to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the EECC requirements into law.

Now, Spain is finally making the requisite changes to its legal framework, last week approving an update to the General Law on Telecommunications. This is the first update of the legislature since it was first introduced back in 2014. It now includes 114 articles and 30 additional provisions, covering everything from the right of access of operators to networks and associated resources to how telcos are taxed.

Perhaps the most significant pledge contained within the new law, however, relates to the availability of internet speed across the nation. The law now mandates that every Spanish citizen has access to internet speeds of over 100Mbps within a year of the law being ratified. 

This goal appears to come directly from the ‘Spain Digital 2025’ programme, set out by the government back in 2020, with the process having been accelerated by the EU-funded Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

Spain is currently one of the most fiberised nations in Europe, but fibre-to-the-home networks capable of achieving 100Mbps speeds still only extend to around 87% of the country’s population. 

Expanding this figure to 100% in just a year – even when capitalising on alternative technologies like fixed wireless access – appears to be a very tall order and will require the operators to redouble their areas to deliver high-quality connectivity to rural Spain.

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscribe to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here

Also in the news: 
ITU’s Partner2Connect project sees $18.5 billion in pledges to connect the unconnected
Telefonica strikes deal with German fibre association to connect 5G sites
Enterprise data opportunities in the 5G era

Tell us about your start up?
Streetwave offers clients the ability to understand the coverage and quality of the mobile networks they depend on both professionally and personally. The Company’s software enables our customers to see coverage insights along nearly every road on a highly granular metre by metre basis. It also identifies how the networks change on a weekly basis in the areas they are interested in. This coverage data is visualised on a GIS to easily see how the networks perform along different buildings, streets and communities. Streetwave has purposefully made the data easy to understand and take action with, for those with no telecoms experience. The Company’s web application allows users to answer simple questions including ‘can I make a phone call?’ or ‘can I stream a HD video?’. Alternatively, customers can dive into further detail with metrics including download speeds or RSRP if they feel comfortable…

Tell us about your start up?
Streetwave offers clients the ability to understand the coverage and quality of the mobile networks they depend on both professionally and personally.

The Company’s software enables our customers to see coverage insights along nearly every road on a highly granular metre by metre basis. It also identifies how the networks change on a weekly basis in the areas they are interested in.

This coverage data is visualised on a GIS to easily see how the networks perform along different buildings, streets and communities. Streetwave has purposefully made the data easy to understand and take action with, for those with no telecoms experience. The Company’s web application allows users to answer simple questions including ‘can I make a phone call?’ or ‘can I stream a HD video?’. Alternatively, customers can dive into further detail with metrics including download speeds or RSRP if they feel comfortable.

Streetwave is currently mapping mobile coverage for tower companies, private business owners and municipal governments. The data is then used to identify the best networks to use and areas where coverage improvements need to be made. We are working with organisations across both the UK and Canada.

Why did you establish the business?
Streetwave was established to tackle the significant issues that arise when government, businesses and individuals don’t understand the coverage quality of the mobile networks that they depend upon.

Everyone knows the importance of the mobile networks. Smart phones allow us to do our banking, shopping, socialising, working, navigation, payments and socialising in the palm of our hands. All of these use cases require digital connectivity to function properly though. Resultantly, as mobile coverage in a country increases by 10%, its GDP will also increase by 1%.

While pricing for mobile data in the UK is competitive compared to the US or Canada, users of the mobile networks are still unable to understand the coverage they will receive on their deals. The coverage checkers on operator’s websites are models that estimate coverage without measuring it on the ground. This can lead to disparities between predicted coverage and actual network performance. While this data can also be crowd sourced, crowdsourcing will often leave large holes in coverage data sets as phones can only intermittently measure network performance in the locations they are in.

This causes issues for consumers. The average cost of a 12-month mobile contract was £566.40 in 2021. This is only going up with inflationary pressures. Many consumers commit to long-term contracts, only to bring their phones back to their homes/offices to find they can’t get coverage. Around 10% of mobile customers in the UK remain unhappy with their mobile contracts.

This is also a problem for every business that depends on the mobile networks for some aspect of their service delivery. For example, electric car charging stations are essential infrastructure for the government’s plans to replace petrol/diesel cars by 2030. However, many require users to connect to an app to pay digitally before charging. When these sites are built in areas with no signal, people are unable to make payment to charge their vehicles. Understanding mobile coverage at charging sites is therefore a vital prerequisite before building begins.

Furthermore, this issue affects government. Ambiguous coverage data will make it difficult for the UK Home Office to assess whether the new Emergency Services Network has the necessary coverage to consistently keep first responders connected before its switch on. It can also cause difficulties for regulators like Ofcom when they are seeking to assess coverage claims.

What is your USP?
The detail of Streetwave’s data is unparalleled. We are able to offer coverage insights along every road and building in areas of interest for our customers. In these locations, customers can see which mobile networks are available, which operators offer the best or worst connectivity and which network generations are available to them.

This data is also regularly refreshed to stay up to date and our visualisation platform makes the data easily accessible to anyone. Furthermore, the Company still have the flexibility as a start-up to tailor our offering to the needs of our customers.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
We work directly with tower companies, collecting data to improve their site selection. We also work with MVNOs to help them better understand which operator to lease infrastructure from. Our data can also be used by MNOs for their marketing and by regulators to check coverage claims.

How have you got to your current stage of development?
As a team we were fortunate to have been hosted by an incubator called the Alacrity Foundation for the first 15 months of building up Streetwave. The Alacrity Foundation is a Newport based charity that is actively building the next generation of UK communications and cyber start-ups. The Foundation brings together business and computer science graduates and presents them with real industry problems that need solving.

Our team were presented with the challenge of building a solution that democratises access to high fidelity mobile coverage intelligence for people and businesses. Each co-founder received a stipend during the programme that allowed us to focus fully on developing Streetwave. Alacrity also supported us in meeting investors as the 15-month programme ended.

Recognising the significance of the challenge Streetwave is solving, we were able to attract a seed investment round led by the Wesley Clover investment group. Wesley Clover also support Streetwave through more than just capital investment. They have given us free office space, access to an experienced designer and used their international presence to help us enter the North American market. The team is further complemented by two successful industry veterans who have joined our board as Non-Exec Directors.

Who inspired you?
Something that has surprised us as a team is just how generous people in the industry have been in lending us time and advice. If we were to list all of the people who have gone out of their way to support us, we would probably have a list that is 100 names long! These people continue to inspire us through both the intelligence they have earned through past successes and the modesty they retain in their willingness to give back to others.

What does the future hold for your business?
We will continue to expand the areas where we map mobile network performance. Our aim is to map the coverage along every address in the UK in the coming years so that everyone can understand the best networks to use in the places they live, work and leisure in. We will also look to continue our expansion into the North American and European markets.

HEADQUARTERS: Newport – Wales
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 5
LAST FUNDING TYPE: Seed Funding
WEBSITE URL: https://streetwave.co/
FOUNDERS
Angus Hay – CEO and Co-Founder
George Gibson – Operations Director and Co-Founder
Dylan Hampton – Product Director and Co-Founder
Nick Broom – Technical Director and Co-Founder

You can meet Streetwave in the Startup Village at Connected Britain: London 20-21 September 2022. Register at www.totaltele.com/connectedbritain

Tell us about your startup Jangala is a not-for-profit startup that produces self-developed, accessible and portable Wi-Fi systems for use by communities in need of humanitarian assistance or broader development support. To date, we have provided internet access to over 50,000 people in refugee camps, schools and clinics across Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe. Our mission is to enable societies everywhere to meet the challenges of today and prepare for the uncertainties of tomorrow. The internet is a fundamental part of modern life. However, 50% of the world’s population lack access to the internet, whilst also facing other challenges related to living in poverty, or as part of marginalised groups, or as a result of being forced to leave their homes. Our technology presents an innovative, feasible, and scalable solution to this digital divide. By enabling internet access for these groups, we aim to support the most marginalised members of the global community to build better futures for themselves. The need for this is only becoming more pressing as the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance has grown significantly in recent years …

Tell us about your startup
Jangala is a not-for-profit startup that produces self-developed, accessible and portable Wi-Fi systems for use by communities in need of humanitarian assistance or broader development support. To date, we have provided internet access to over 50,000 people in refugee camps, schools and clinics across Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe. Our mission is to enable societies everywhere to meet the challenges of today and prepare for the uncertainties of tomorrow.

The internet is a fundamental part of modern life. However, 50% of the world’s population lack access to the internet, whilst also facing other challenges related to living in poverty, or as part of marginalised groups, or as a result of being forced to leave their homes. Our technology presents an innovative, feasible, and scalable solution to this digital divide. By enabling internet access for these groups, we aim to support the most marginalised members of the global community to build better futures for themselves. The need for this is only becoming more pressing as the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance has grown significantly in recent years – today, 275m people need urgent protection or assistance, up from 235m people in 2021.

Jangala’s flagship technology is Big Box – a rugged and powerful device that can turn any internet connection into Wi-Fi that’s easy to manage and scale, and is capable of connecting thousands of users. We also have the smaller Get Box, which was developed in early 2020 in response to people’s urgent connectivity needs during the pandemic, and has since connected over 260 low-income households, emergency accommodations and refuge shelters in the UK and Europe.

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What is your USP?
Jangala’s Wi-Fi systems have been conceived and designed specifically for use in challenging circumstances and by people without technical expertise, thereby lowering the barriers to deploying internet access across a range of challenging aid and development scenarios.

Existing Wi-Fi technologies are limited and not suitable for use in most humanitarian situations, and even in many development settings where a lack of communications infrastructure precludes easy internet access. Battery-powered ‘MiFi’ devices can only serve a few users, have a limited range and cannot be controlled remotely. Conventional approaches are more capable but expensive, and often require engineering staff for set-up and maintenance.

While there are newer, alternative devices that also integrate 3G/4G with Wi-Fi, Jangala’s products stand out due to their ability to shape traffic, their inherent scalability, and ease of use which removes the need for technical expertise. Jangala also works with our funders to provide systems pro bono to organisations and projects that would otherwise be unable to pay for connectivity, thereby removing both the cost and expertise barriers that so often need to be overcome in order to establish a network.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
Our Big Box and Get Box systems require the local services available to the general public in order to operate. Big Box is a versatile and powerful device that can be deployed in a variety of challenging contexts thanks to its twin 4G/5G modems and ability to combine up to 32 sources of internet access – including SIMs, satellite and point-to-point wireless – into a single stable connection that can accommodate thousands of end-users. The most commonly used backhaul for our systems are SIM cards, which are widely and easily available in many of the countries in which we operate.

One of Jangala’s first corporate donors was BT, whose support was critical in helping us get our systems out to the field in the early stages of our development. Since 2021 we have partnered with Cuckoo, a new innovative player in the sector, who generously donate 1% of their turnover to Jangala every quarter.

The next stage of Jangala’s development requires significant strategic thinking and expertise. As we expand our operations worldwide, strong relationships with partners in the telecoms sector are crucial to ensuring efficient rollout of systems and hitting our ambitious growth targets. We are always on the lookout for new strategic partners, so if you think your organisation might be able to help, please get in touch!

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How have you got to your current stage of development?
When Jangala started in 2016, we were crowdfunded primarily through The Worldwide Tribe – a nonprofit organisation that uses creative storytelling to bring a human perspective to humanitarian issues while also working with grassroots projects focused on supporting those in need. This funding enabled us to set up the first Jangala network covering the Calais Jungle refugee camp and begin research and development on Big Box.

Since then, as Jangala became formalised as a charitable organisation, we have secured formal funding from competitions, corporate giving, and trusts and foundations, as well as running individual giving campaigns. Today, our major funders include Lenovo, Cuckoo Broadband, Arm, CHK Charities, and Tedworth Charitable Trust.

Why did you establish the business?

In 2015, at the height of the Refugee crisis in Europe, our founders Rich Thanki, Nil’s O’Hara and Samson Rinaldi met while volunteering in the Calais Jungle refugee camp. Nils and Samson have extensive experience in humanitarian aid and disaster response, while Rich worked for several years on humanitarian tech solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to stints at Microsoft and Ofcom.

During their time in the Jungle it became clear that while charities and grassroots groups were providing essential support, what was missing was an internet connection. The internet was a lifeline for the refugees they met – the possibility of communicating with loved ones, as well as sending and receiving money, to find valuable information, and for education and entertainment. Meanwhile, the organisations on the ground providing humanitarian assistance sorely needed connectivity to coordinate their response and ensure their operations were as effective and efficient in a difficult and rapidly changing situation.

So, Rich and Nils set about creating a Wi-Fi network for the Calais Jungle, and when it was switched on just after Christmas 2015, it was used by over 5,000 people in a single week. In 2016, Samson joined the team and together they developed Big Box.

Who inspired you?
Each of our founders have their own personal connection with refugees and asylum seekers, which has inspired their work and Jangala’s mission. Rich himself is the son of refugees who fled to the UK from Uganda in the 1970s. Nils’ family adopted a child refugee from Eritrea in 2015, which prompted Nils to visit the Calais Jungle to see for himself the challenges faced by his soon-to-be brother. Since then, Nils’ family has welcomed three further refugees from Sudan, Afghanistan and Libya.

Meanwhile, Samson is the foster brother of two teenage boys from Kurdistan, who he is helping through the UK’s asylum process. While we may have grown out of the humanitarian response to the refugee crisis, Jangala is ultimately inspired by those working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) around the world.

What does the future hold for your business?
Our goal is to connect 150,000 people by the end of 2022, and 5 million people by 2025. In order to achieve this, Jangala is preparing to adopt a hybrid charitable-commercial model by establishing a wholly-owned trading subsidiary and selling our products and services to larger aid and sustainable development organisations. Every penny of profit will go to Jangala’s pro bono deployments which will serve communities, organisations and grassroots projects without the resources to pay for internet.

We are aware that different communities have different needs and requirements when it comes to digital applications. We are therefore exploring new product opportunities to further support the digital development of underserved communities, such as edge servers and renewable, networked batteries.

If you or your organisation are able to assist Jangala with our goals in any way, please contact us on info@janga.la. We’d love to hear from you!

Headquarters: London, UK
Number of Employees: 8
Last Funding Type: Corporate donations / Trusts and Foundations
Website URL: www.janga.la
Founder’s:
Richard Thanki [INTERVIEW]
Samson Rinaldi 
Nils O’Hara 

Jangala participated in the Total Telecom Congress in 2021. If you would like to join the Startup Village this year and perhaps pickup the Startup trophy at the World Communication Awards, click HERE to find out more