Connect Africa is using Vodacom South Africa’s Community Phone service to deliver telephony to the rural communities participating in our “Proof of Concept”.

With a fixed rate subsidised by the South African Government community phones offer African communities the opportunity to benefit from the mobile revolution that has swept the World.

Until now these community phones have been located predominantly in the urban and peri-urban areas of South Africa. Connect Africa is now leading the way to deliver this very popular and valuable service to the more isolated rural communities.

In addition to cellular telephony, Connect Africa will also be using Vodacom’s GPRS and 3G data networks to transmit and receive data and emails for these communities.

By working on the periphery of Vodacom’s network coverage and boosting the signal Connect Africa can extend that coverage into previously poorly serviced areas. These areas will be introduced to the technology and service levels will be expanded as demand is established and grows. By monitoring the activity in each of the communities on the Mobile Unit’s route Connect Africa will be able to identify areas where cellular activity is sufficient to justify a fixed network installation. The network operator is then informed and network coverage can be expanded efficiently. A mutually rewarding partnership, with Connect Africa as “market makers” for cellular networks, is built by helping the networks comply with their rural penetration obligations on a profitable basis and, in return for a share in the revenue generated, Connect Africa can move further a field to expose yet more rural areas to cellular communication technology.