Solar-powered GSM solution brings voice to the world's rural citizens

Indian entrepreneur Rajiv Mehrotra has a mission: to connect the world’s rural citizens wirelessly.
But it’s difficult for a wireless carrier to bring services to remote areas with only the prospect of getting $2 per month in revenue from those citizens. Nevertheless, Mehrotra’s latest venture, VNL, has built a solar-powered end-to-end voice-only GSM network that promises to make a profit once 50 people are using it, even at $2 per month.
VNL’s WorldGSM solution, which has been rolled out in 50 remote villages in India, uses what the company calls a Cascading Star Architecture to extend cellular service about 70 miles from the operator’s most remote cell site.
There are 6.5 billion people in the world, and 3 billion have mobile phones, Mehrota said in an interview with RCR Wireless News. Of the 3.5 billion people who don’t have wireless service, more than 1 billion live in areas without electricity. Traditional GSM systems are power-hungry; generators are expensive and many of the areas don’t even have roads for companies to drive on to get power out to a cellular tower. “What these countries do have is plenty of sunshine.”
VNL’s solar-powered solution can be installed in six hours by two people. Not only is the capital expense for the system lower – the village site costs less than $15,000 – the operating expenses are minimal – workers simply have to clean the solar panels once a week, Mehrotra said with a chuckle. However, his passion behind the solution is no laughing matter. He has been working on solar-powered cellular equipment for four years and invested millions of his own money. He feels a social responsibility toward his own country’s rural people, who generally are poorer and less educated than their urban counterparts. “These villages, they’ve been there for years. They find a way to survive. They’ve been an inspiration to us. A phone in the village is freedom. They’re now one with the global community. It is a word for freedom. It is a word for democracy. We need to connect the unconnected.”
Mehrotra has been doing just that for many years. He is the founder and chairman of the Shyam Group of companies, and in 1974 brought satellite TV to millions of village homes in India by manufacturing low-cost satellite TV equipment. He later brought wireless telephony to more than 100,000 Indian villages via GSM technology and also used CDMA technology to bring fixed wireless service to India. In December, the World Economic Forum named VNL one of its 2010 Technology Pioneers, one of 26 companies worldwide to receive the award.
“Mobile operators are not charitable organizations,” so deploying a traditional GSM system in a rural area is cost prohibitive at $2 ARPU. VNL’s solution consists of a base station transceiver, a base station controller and a mobile switching center that can scale up to serve 10,000 subscribers. With fewer than 50 people on the network, the operator can make a profit, Mehrotra said. VNL is targeting rural areas throughout the world, including Africa and Latin America, and is in discussions with various governments around the globe. The company expects to be able to make public some operator agreements shortly.