A Green Solution to Power Nigeria’s Rural Communications
Among Nigeria’s daily challenges, the country’s electricity supply is inadequate for many people, homes and businesses. According to PwC, only 40% of Nigeria's population is connected to the energy grid while power supply difficulties are experienced around 60% of the time. At best, average daily power supply is estimated at four hours, although several days can go by without any power at all. In the Spectator Index’s long list of worst performing countries when it comes to electricity supply, Nigeria ranked second out of 137 countries in 2017. The lack of power has created a challenge for mobile operators to build cell towers and provide communications to people living in Nigeria’s rural communities. Fortunately, Huawei’s “wooden pole” solution known as RuralStar is now helping operators tackle this by allowing a base station to be built on a simple pole instead of needing a 30 m dedicated tower. A low-power and green solution, RuralStar can be powered using just six solar panels, which removes the main obstacle preventing operators from bringing 2G/3G networks to villagers in remote areas. Not only will the solution save energy and drive new business for operators, but most importantly, it will increase communications to improve economic opportunities, education, health and quality of life for Nigerian people.
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