Article
Extension of mobile phone services to rural areas without electricity could now become cheaper and easier following the May 2007 launch of the first wind and solar-powered Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) base station by US telecommunications giant Motorola. MTN Chief Commercial Officer Eric Van Veen has hailed the new technology as revolutionary in the continuous struggle to avail mobile communications to rural stretches. “It is absolutely a fantastic discovery and we’re looking at it as a powerful tool that will help us tremendously to improve our rural mobile coverage”. An interesting read (see also “Tax, Power, Prices Limit Rural Africa Mobile Use” in the Mobile Database).