Nokia to help with nationwide broadband roll-out through its small cells technology
Nokia, now an end-to-end telecommunications solutions provider, is in talks with the government agencies and service providers to use innovation to extend broadband services across the country, especially to rural areas.
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According to the World Bank, a 10 per cent Internet penetration could lead to about one per cent increase in a country’s domestic productivity otherwise known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Nokia which has taken over the assets and operations of Alcatel-Lucent, a leading player in the global telecom and ICT industry, installed Ghana’s eastern corridor fibre-optic backbone which it says could be leveraged to provide reliable broadband access to the thousands of communities across the cable’s pathway.
The Country Senior Officer of Nokia in Ghana, Mr Ramy Hashem, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview in Accra that the company’s small cells solutions, which compressed an entire base station of a service provider into the size of an A4 sheet, offered a cost-effective mode of expanding telecommunications services.
Small cells
“The small cells, the size of an A4 sheet, represent a whole base station of a telecom operator which allows the operators to extend coverage to homes, offices and other places, especially rural areas cost effectively.”
The Nokia Flexi Zone small cells increase network capacity for operators to meet the huge data demand. It is 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi-capable small cell that ensures a rich user experience, while complementing operators’ macro network capacity and coverage at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
“You can extend the rural coverage more cost effectively. If I’m focused on, say, Accra now, they can extend to the rural areas to utilise Internet and these small cells are helping telcos to do that,” he said.
Nokia built the 800km fibre-optic cable for the National Information Technology Agency (NITA). The cable runs from Ho to the northern part of the country.
Mr Hashem said the small cells solution offered a great opportunity to extend coverage and bring broadband connectivity to the rural areas.
A couple of weeks ago, Nokia, which has been working in Ghana for almost 20 years, organised its own Mobile World Congress Roadshow (MWC-R) in Accra during which it showcased various solutions and products which the company believes could assist telecom operators in Ghana to meet the ever-increasing demand for network capacity, speed and coverage, and improve the customer experience with high-quality and secure networks.
The event
The two-day event saw in attendance high-profile personalities in government and the private sector to experience and see some of Nokia’s latest technologies which was getting even better and broader with the synergies forged among Nokia as an experienced ICT manufacturer and Alcatel-Lucent’s rich knowledge in the networks, transport, connectivity and what have you.
Nokia also used the occasion to celebrate its 151st anniversary, having started in 1865. It has been a long way of innovation, leading up to a lot of technology breakthrough.
The event underlines Nokia’s strong presence in Ghana, at the forefront of creating and licensing the technologies that are increasingly at the heart of connected lives in the country.
He added that the company was committed to investing in the Ghanaian market, an important market for its operations. It has business relations with all six operators and more than 23 service providers.
“We’ve seen a strong presence and the feedback has been positive as it is the first time many are seeing a complete portfolio of services from suppliers. Our offerings here are things which are very relevant to the local market and can have immediate benefit for the country,” Mr Hashem said.
Internet of things
The company also introduced its services in the Internet of Things (IoT) such as how to improve public safety, smart metering and smart grids. With challenges in power generation, improving power utilisation and energy efficiency is a good way to go and Nokia says it would explore all such opportunities.
IoT is the fifth generation (5G) space of data application which intends to connect almost everything on the surface of the earth in order to improve speed, security, information and convenience.
“Full application of Internet of Things and the discussions have already started at the Mobile World Conference which brought out the traction and interest for which Nokia intended to sustain,” Customer Consultant in charge of Global Enterprise and Public Sector, Mr Bart Vrancken, said.
The conference used to be held in Barcelona. But the advantage of such silo events is it enables the company to share and showcase customised and country-specific solutions and products.”
“The messages are aligned to the issues that are here, local solutions for local problems. When they come they see the intricacies of what we can actually do,” the IP Business Manager at Nokia, Mr Terrah Shelby, said.
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Nokia is now focusing on mobile and fixed networks. It focuses on the clouds, Internet of Things and ultra-broadband access (4G, 5G or over fibre) and IP. — GB