INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology
Parallel Wireless making
ALL G network deployments
as easy as Wi-Fi
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Open RAN solution helping
to bridge the digital divide
for 800 million people
who are still unconnected
in Africa.
D
eploying network facilities across
Africa can be a costly and lengthy
exercise. However, with its world’s
first ALL G software-enabled open network
solution, Parallel Wireless is helping global
mobile network operators (MNOs) ‘connect
the unconnected’ by making ALL G network
deployments as easy and as cost-effective
as Wi-Fi. As a result, it has been welcomed
across the African continent with several
deployments and pending trials in 12
countries, which are assisting in Africa’s
rapidly advancing connectivity.
“Africa is the most digitally divided continent
with only 44% unique mobile users,” said Lux
Maharaj, Director of Sales for Parallel Wireless,
Southern Africa. “To bridge the digital divide,
people need access to technology, but it is a
commercial dilemma for the regional MNOs
given the deployment cost. Traditional 2G,
3G or 4G networks require expensive and
bulky equipment for their deployment and
operation. These hardware-based networks
are difficult and pricey to upgrade.”
Parallel Wireless enables a shift to
open, software-based, and virtualised
network architectures to overcome
these deployment challenges, while also
delivering network agility and much
lower deployment cost. The solution is
attractive to African MNOs because of easy
upgradability to any G, allowing operators
to keep building 2G networks in areas
untouched by telecom networks, while
at the same time continuing to allocate
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resources and time to expand their 3G or
4G networks with the same investment.
Since its introduction to the African market
in 2017, the Parallel Wireless solution has
undergone trials and deployments with
multiple African operators in Nigeria, Kenya,
Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Somalia,
Sudan and Senegal and has forthcoming
trials and deployments in Nigeria, Uganda,
Namibia, Kenya, Angola, Guinea, Senegal
and Tanzania, including:
• As presented at TIP Summit, MTN is
planning to deploy equipment based on
Facebook’s Open RAN TIP specifications,
including the Parallel Wireless solution,
as it believes it to be more cost-effective
than traditional communications
networking technology for bringing
coverage to rural and ultra-rural locations
• Parallel Wireless is engaged with
iEngineering Group, a leading end-to-
end engineering infrastructure solutions
provider to the telecommunications and
power industries across Africa, the Middle
East and Southeast Asia with operations
in 18 countries. The Parallel Wireless ALL
G Open RAN software-enabled solution
has been selected to bring coverage in
Africa because it can be easily upgraded
from 2G to 3G or 4G with a simple
software upgrade, hence future-proofing
the initial network investment
• Telesol is deploying Parallel Wireless
to connect citizens and businesses in
Ghana with 4G wireless services. Parallel
Wireless’ unique low-cost, low-footprint
and virtualised multi-technology solution
is easy and affordable to install, maintain,
and upgrade to any future technology
without any additional hardware
• In Uganda, Intelsat used Parallel
Wireless to bring 3G coverage. The
solution was fast and easy to install.
Godfrey Mutabazi, Executive Director
of the Uganda Communications
Commission, stressed that extending
broadband connectivity and delivering
fast, affordable Internet services to
everyone in Uganda remains one of the
Uganda government’s primary missions
Parallel Wireless was at AfricaCom 2018
in Cape Town to demonstrate its unique
solution for MNOs across Africa and other
developing and developed countries. n
Parallel Wireless is helping
global mobile network
operators (MNOs) ‘connect the
unconnected’ by making ALL G
network deployments as easy
and as cost-effective as Wi-Fi
www.intelligentcio.com