When you think about access to broadband and mobile data, the last place you would expect high speed internet is in rural areas. These connections are usually reserved for the rich and with little to no access to affordable electricity, this means most communities living in rural areas are disconnected from the immense privileges of having the internet at their fingertips.
Fortunately, Mawingu Networks, a local startup with international funding, now offers a solution using a combination of low-cost wireless technology and solar power to connect farms, schools, businesses, factories, NGOs and homes to the internet. With Internet access costing as little as Ksh 10/- for 50MB, consumers can access Mawingu WiFi via hotspots located across the Mt Kenya region.
The first pilot – known as Project Mawingu – was in Nanyuki, a market town of 50,000 nearly 200km away from Nairobi. At the time, only 17% of adults and 9% of teenagers in the area were accessing the internet, primarily through their mobile phones or local cyber cafés. On average, these people were spending 19% of their weekly household income on internet-related costs.
Using White Space Technology
In 2013, Microsoft 4Afrika first brought TV white spaces technology to Africa. The technology was not new, but it was the first time it was going to be used on a large scale in Africa – connecting many unconnected communities to the internet for the first time.
Excited to be at the @MawinguNetworks office in Nanyuki with @MicrosoftAfrica & @4Afrika to learn more about what Mawingu has been doing in terms of #DigitalTransformationKe ☺ pic.twitter.com/OY4lRA8vFm
— Kenyan Collective 🇰 (@KenCollective) March 23, 2018
It wasn’t long before the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) recognised the promise and potential of Mawingu, which in Swahili means ‘cloud’. In 2016, they committed $4.1 million in financing to help Mawingu commercially expand into more rural communities.
With the support of Microsoft and OPIC, Mawingu has since grown from 15 to over 1,100 WiFi hotspots, which connect 600 small businesses to the internet and have over 11,000 active users in and around Nanyuki. The project has also connected 26 schools, the Laikipia County government office, public library, Red Cross and Burguret Dispensary healthcare clinic.
With Mawingu, internet access costs as little as Ksh10/- for 50MB. Mawingu also delivers high-speed WiFi to homes and businesses, with speeds ranging from 2MBPS to 30MBPS.
So what exactly is White Space Technology?
Mawingu represents the first time unused TV White Space (TVWS) frequencies technology (TV channels in the uhf and vhf spectrum) have been used together with solar-powered base stations in the process of delivering low-cost broadband to digitally excluded rural areas lacking even the basic electricity.
When Kenya moved from analog to digital broadcasting, more white spaces became available and more companies now use the white spaces to bridge the digital divide in the rural areas.
These are unused sections of the spectrum of TV frequencies initially set aside for analog broadcast television. Broadband delivered through TVWS technology has a stronger signal capable of traveling longer distances – across valleys and over hills, through and around buildings – than all wireless internet delivery methods.
https://youtu.be/gAv8Osdu9D8
Tim Hobbs, Director and CEO of Mawingu Networks said: “Through our WiFi hotspots, we have connected over 600 SMEs in and around Nanyuki to the internet. This has helped them to digitally transform and reach new markets.
By now providing these SMEs with access to more local ICT professionals, we can support their transformation even further and help them enhance their offerings. As a start-up in a small town ourselves, we know how difficult and expensive it can be to hire the right talent, but sometimes that option is not even available to us and we end up having to outsource to other countries.”
