Mobile network services have expanded across Sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade. However, these services have primarily been focused on customers in densely-populated urban communities. Furthermore, traditional cell towers cost $100K-$250K to build and $30K-$40K to operate annually. These dynamics make it unprofitable to build traditional cellular towers in areas that serve less than 20,000 mobile subscribers.
Over 1.2 billion people around the world lack access to cellular coverage. 40% of those people live in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the continent’s population grows, there is going to be increased demand for mobile services across the region.
Vanu provides hardware and software that allows mobile network operators to profitably build and operate cellular networks in rural areas by lowering the cost of constructing cell towers, increasing the ease of operations for each tower, and reducing each tower’s power consumption and annual operating costs. As a result, Vanu’s towers can be built and operated economically in areas with a few hundred mobile subscribers.
