Innovation has pushed down site costs and increased site autonomy to make ultra-ultra rural sites increasingly viable. Historically, sparse populations and low ARPUs in rural areas have meant mobile coverage in rural Africa lagged behind urban Africa, but the gap appears to be narrowing. TowerXchange’s rural roundtable, hosted by Jocelyn Karakula, Deputy CTIO of Orange, was packed, while our closing panel focused on the challenges of providing commercial connectivity in unserved and underserved regions of Africa. The panel was chaired by our own Head of Research, Matthew Edwards and featured Neil Bartlett, Access Network Program Manager at Facebook, Dion Jerling, the Co-Founder of Connect Earth and Albert Gardiner, CEO of Fairwaves.
Rural sites top the agenda at TowerXchange Meetup Africa 2019
