Winity, which became a new Brazilian national mobile operator in 2021, and satellite operator Hughes have announced a pilot project involving prepaid mobile internet in remote areas.

The project is called RuralChip and uses 700MHz spectrum won by Winity at auction in 2021. Ericsson, Nokia and Algar Telecom are among the partners for the project.

The duo’s proof of concept is taking place in two cities: Presidente Juscelino and Cururupu. Both are in Maranhão state in northern Brazil. In the first city the access network provider is Ericsson. The other uses technology provided by Nokia. Algar Telecom provides the network core along with charging, provisioning, NOC and data centre services.

Both sites will make use of Hughes’ high-capacity satellite backhaul solution, an LTE site and a Winity network core, effectively creating a 4G network to serve RuralChip customers in the areas covered.

The official launch of the project took place last week. The plan is to refine the solution for a future deployment at scale throughout the country, making possible the digital inclusion of thousands of people and the economic development of these regions, in line with Winity’s business plan, which is to get to where no other operator has reached to date.

According to TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, Winity Telecom – which is backed by alternative asset management firm Patria Investimentos – successfully bid on a national 2×10MHz 700MHz licence in Brazil’s November 2021 5G spectrum auction, paying BRL1.428 billion (USD276.8 million) – the highest bid for a single spectrum lot in the auction.

Winity plans to build 5,000 cell towers by 2029 and to establish itself as Brazil’s first wholesale operator.

Spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and satellite communications company SpaceX has launched a new Indonesian communications satellite as part of an ambitious project called SATRIA.

The $550 million project aims to provide high-speed internet access to schools, medical centres and thousands of public and government facilities across the island nation.

The powerful satellite, which is intended to boost broadband access across thousands of islands in the country’s vast archipelago, launched on Sunday. As Reuters explains, roughly two-thirds of Indonesia’s 280 million population already use the internet, but connectivity is limited in the country’s far-flung, underdeveloped eastern islands.

The satellite was built by Thales Alenia Space, which provides space-based systems, including satellites and ground segments, for multiple telecommunications and exploration-related purposes. It will use onboard ion thrusters to circularize its orbit at an altitude of about 35,888 kilometres above the equator at 126 degrees east longitude. 

The CBS news service explains that satellites at that geosynchronous altitude take 24 hours to complete one orbit, rotating in lockstep with the Earth to appear stationary in the sky. That allows the use of fixed antennas on the ground, greatly simplifying the infrastructure needed to send and receive data. The satellite is designed to operate for at least 15 years.

SATRIA is a public-private project between the government of Indonesia and a consortium led by satellite operator PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, or PSN.

The launch has received enormous press coverage already – and it’s not too surprising given the statistics involved. With a throughput of 150 gigabytes per second, SATRIA will connect some 94,000 schools, nearly 50,000 village offices, other government facilities and thousands of hospitals and medical facilities across the fourth most populous country in the world.

Before SATRIA, Indonesia relied on five domestic communications satellites and four ‘foreign’ relay stations with a combined 50 gigabytes of telecommunications bandwith. SATRIA can provide more than three times the combined national capacities that are currently in use,

Adi Rahman Adiwoso, chief executive officer of PSN, was quoted by SpaceTechAsia as saying « We are confident that SATRIA can be the solution to the digital gap that still exists in Indonesia. »

In what could prove to be a highly significant development for mobile operators, a number of South Africa’s broadcasters have agreed to the newest deadline to vacate the so-called ‘digital dividend’ bands.

Communications minister Mondli Gungubele has said that the date to complete the migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television is now 31 December 2024. Two previous deadlines were not met by his predecessor, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.

As the TechCentral website points out, this time the minister has the backing of a number of broadcasters.

Gungubele published a notice in the Government Gazette this week saying all analogue broadcasters using bands above 694MHz must vacate those frequencies by no later than 31 July.

This is important for mobile operators which, in theory, were given access to those frequency bands during last year’s spectrum auctions but still can’t make full use of the spectrum.

Those broadcasters occupying the bands above 694MHz must move to lower frequencies at the end of July. All remaining analogue broadcasting services should temporarily be accommodated in lower frequencies, which seems to be acceptable to big broadcasters SABC and e.tv. Digital broadcasting services operating above 694MHz must go to frequencies below 694MHz to free up the 694-862Mhz frequency bands.

All analogue signals are to be switched off no later than 31 December 2024, by which time, it is hoped, the millions of households now relying on analogue broadcasts will have converted to digital services.

As we mentioned in February 2021, like a number of countries in Africa, South Africa missed the original deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union for completion of the switchover process, which was meant to happen in June 2015.

State-owned service provider Angola Telecom has this week announced the launch of a new service called Conecta Angola, whose aim is to reach the most remote areas of the country where, previously, none of the country’s mobile operators had been active.

The Conecta Angola project was formally unveiled at the opening of Angotic 2023 in Luanda, a three-day event held from 12 to 14 June, which acts as a platform for discussing and addressing challenges related to ICT. It was attended by a number of top-level government officials.

The initiative has a strong social angle, notably targeting communities where schools, hospitals and municipal administrations have limited access to operators, to create more digital inclusion.

The sales director of Angola Telecom, Eusébio Santos, suggested that the first phase of the project would involve taking the service to previously internet-excluded populations. In a second phase of the project, he said, « we will be able to start thinking about how to integrate small and medium-sized companies » that operate in these areas.

He also noted that a pilot project is already underway in Bela Vista, in the province of Bié , where students and other users at the local Academic Centre of Excellence can use new internet facilities free of charge.

Conecta Angola developed from a partnership between Infrasat, a provider of satellite communications and backhauling solutions and owner of the only low-cost rural comunications network, and the country’s National Space Programme Management Office (GGPEN).

Indeed, according to TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, Angola Telecom has said that the aim of connecting some of the most remote areas of the country with free internet services will be supported by the Angosat-2 communications satellite. 

However, the cost of rollout, not to mention a timescale, do not appear to have been revealed.

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This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Josh Tsui CEO of Floship

Manufacturers, businesses, and all organizations in the telecom supply chain have had to constantly develop groundbreaking solutions to maintain the production of high-quality goods due to rising costs and limited access to raw materials, especially since the onset of the pandemic. As a result, traditional linear supply chain strategies have given way to new ones that offer optimized operation flow, green options, and a smooth delivery experience with reduced cost. A new kind of supply chain known as circular supply chain has begun to benefit … [visit site to read more]

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