Mobile Telephony to Reach 400,000 People in Remote African Villages

In October this year, the temporary network will be replaced by a permanent one that will continue to be operated by Zain. The permanent solution will also use Ericsson’s sustainable energy solutions including wind, solar energy and other solutions to drive equipment at minimum power requirements. It is estimated that the permanent solution will run at 80% increased efficiency over traditional diesel-powered mobile sites.

Sony Ericsson has supplied mobile handsets to the Millennium Village health clinics and community health workers. Together with Ericsson, they have developed a new Solar Village Charger that is capable of re-charging 30 mobile phone batteries each day and eight phones simultaneously for each village cluster.

In Tanzania and Uganda, Ericsson has upgraded Zain’s GSM network to EDGE and at the same time improved coverage and network reach. Using a combination of ‘fixed-wireless terminals’ mobile Internet connectivity will be provided to schools and health centres. Plans are also in-place to extend coverage to all 73,000 people in both village clusters. Sony Ericsson and Ericsson also have provided handsets to community and health workers and piloted new healthcare applications for mobile learning purposes as well as basic household data collection Zain has provided SIM cards and established emergency numbers to improve access to healthcare and emergency services.

Zain will also provide a toll-free number that can be used in medical emergencies to connect patients with on-duty medical personnel. Other initiatives include a mobile learning tool to train community health workers and mobile applications to collect and share basic household data and health information.

Posted to the site on 9th May 2008