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Our solutions are tailored to deliver cost-effective and sustainable connectivity solutions appropriate for Africa
” Africa, past and present, has been and is very well known for its vast natural resources. We at Rascom know Africa for its other and even greater resource, its people. “
Africa is home to 1.1 billion people, and this is projected to double to 2.4 billion in the next three decades. Africa’s people, like anywhere else, need to communicate, to talk to each other and to talk to the rest of the World.
We believe Communications is empowerment, and we at Rascom are doing our part by helping to fill in the gaps in connectivity in Africa to help deliver this promise; particularly in the Rural areas.
Case Studies
- Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC
- Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
- Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL)
Rascom agreed with its partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) , IPX –a rural operator, and Orange- a GSM operator to extend Orange’s GSM network to previously unconnected communities in Congo using Rascom’s GSM Extension Service. Two rural villages, were selected as pilot sites for the initial proof of concept; Panu- approximately 800 kilometers from Kinshasa, and Kalo in the same area.
Considerable logistical challenges had to be overcome in transporting equipment and technical personnel to the sites. Traveling by four-wheel drive vehicles in rugged terrain and jungle paths and in some sections, canoes across rivers, it took the team almost three days to reach the sites. The team carried with them all the necessary supplies; the ‘Skylinx’ systems cabinets, antennas, ground infrastructure, 30m towers, solar panels, fencing, tools, building materials and basic provisions. Rascom’s technician put up the infrastructure and installed and commissioned the Communications systems.
On the day the installations went live, the excitement in the community was palpable; spontaneous celebrations broke-out, with communal dancing, singing and hand clapping. The people queued patiently with their children to make that first ever phone call, and it gave new meaning to the term ‘community empowerment’.
The two pilot sites exceeded both Rascom’s and Orange’s expectations in terms of traffic minutes and vividly proved the proposition that there are sustainable markets in rural areas previously ‘off the grid’ if the right solution is applied. Deployment and connection to the ‘grid’ is ongoing at similar sites throughout DRC, thanks to Rascom technology and its partners.
Rascom and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) are working on an E-learning project with African Universities. In this joint-venture, Rascom provides the technical infrastructure, the satellite links and engineering, as well as the operational supervision and back-office support, while EPFL takes care of the e-learning content preparation, delivery and follow-up. Six university centers from four African countries (Cameroon, Senegal, Cote-d’Ivoire, and Benin) are at this date fully hitched to this growing e-learning network. Irrespective of the campuses geographical locations within the countries already on the move, more than 3000 students spread over the six university centers are capable to:
- Delivering MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
- Evaluatinge students through continuous assessment and exams
- Interacting in forums with teachers and students
To deliver the above, telecommunication between EPFL in Switzerland and the African universities have to be permanently available and fully reliable.
EPFL has chosen Rascom Satellite services to provide connectivity to universities in Cameroon and Ivory Coast. Rascom delivered an end to end managed solution based on its satellite and Viasat LinkWay systems allowing EPFL to share a pool of bandwidth amongst the remote universities which allows its local partners to get bandwidth on demand to download MOOCs or upload student evaluations.
This system has been performing successfully over the past year allowing hundreds of students to access to EPFL MOOCs
The Pan African e-Network Project was an initiative to provide the Indian expertise in information technology to bring benefits of healthcare and higher education to all countries of Africa, including their remote areas.
RASCOM has been associated with the Pan African e-Network Project for provisioning of satellite services through its Rascom RQ1 satellite then RQ1R satellite since Aug 2008 covering 48 African countries and India linking Indian Instituitions with African counterparts.
The project is being implemented by Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) and offers Tele-education and Tele-medicine services in African countries. Numerous students have registered and graduated under various courses offered by Indian Institutes under this project. Regular CME(Continuing Medical Educations) sessions are also being delivered over this network.
To learn more click on:
http://www.tcil-india.com/new/success_stories1.php
http://www.panafricanenetwork.com