Peridot Solutions
Provides cost effective solutions for challenging coverage regions.
Cost - Effective
Full Cycle Service
Rural Coverage
Providing mobile wireless coverage in rural areas has always been a challenge. However, it is more difficult to provide services in remote mountainous areas such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. The main reason is not the size of these regions (although that is a factor), but the cost of building and deploying base stations combined with low average revenue per user (ARPU). This increased deployment cost and reduced revenue makes cost effective solutions of greater importance.
Land infrastructure over vast geographic areas requires significant investment over several years to connect disconnected communities. This is not financially realistic for low ARPU sites. However, at the same time, pressure is increasing from government agencies to guarantee coverage of the national network under GSM licenses and universal service coverage of the population. As a result, mobile operators must now provide coverage of almost 100% of the country and expand voice and data capabilities to rural areas that were previously not covered. The sites must be autonomous and independent of energy. The lack of infrastructure in place puts network operators under incredible pressure to offer the widest possible coverage.
While most cities are connected to 4G networks, rural areas lack mobile phone coverage especially in Middle East, Africa and Latin America. And with the number of SIM cards per country ranging from 37% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 170% in South Africa, there are large differences in cell phone density between countries. By 2050, there will be approximately 3.4 billion people living in the Middle East and Africa. Unprecedented growth will present both challenges and opportunities for the international community. With more than half of the world’s population is under 30 years old, this young demographic has increased the availability of smartphones that are technology-enabled and accessible to the majority of the population, and the demand for innovative solutions such as mobile payments, good and stable network connections, etc. is continuously growing.
Due to low ARPU, limited macro-site infrastructure, and terrestrial connectivity costs, it is considered uneconomical to deploy networks in sparsely populated areas. But for micro-site infrastructure, it is very beneficial to use rural telecommunication networks if you can use satellites to cover a large geographical area and use solar power plants. Bridging the digital divide allows mobile operators, governments and rural populations to improve services, income and the social fabric. Supporting economic development, mobile connectivity enables faster and easier communication, the basic requirements of daily commerce, and the facilitation of electronic payments. It also benefits the entire population of the countries such as health services, education, public services and entertainment.