TelOne Working With A Murambinda Company To Expand Internet Coverage – Good Model For Rural Connectivity

Murambinda Works is a company from you guessed it- Murambinda, Buhera district. The company installed solar powered network towers on Nerutanga Mountain. The towers have a 40km radius.

This can potentially connect businesses, government offices, clinics and about 80 schools within the rural district to the internet. This is as transformative a development as anything in a rural area and it’s really an awesome thing that this is being spearheaded by a company resident in the district.

Murambinda Works started as an internet cafe 15 years ago according to its Projects Manager, Joseph Bishi. It was then that they heard local calls for communication services. They then partnered the Internet Society to deploy an independent internet connection through installation of the towers.

Bishi says they are currently finishing the configuration of their radio transmitters. He also said they have enough funding to see the project to completion. Their only need which they had initially understood is the actual link to the internet and this is where TelOne comes in.

Murambinda Works approached TelOne asking them to give them a fibre link at their tower. Fortunately TelOne already has a fibre cable that goes up to Murambinda Growth Point. The TelOne MD, Chipo Mutasa said this:

What we have seen is a very encouraging project for rural access deployment. We are very excited because we know we have fibre backbone cables that end at Murambinda Growth Point but we have not been able to deploy connectivity to some schools here.

A partnership with this group will help us deploy services much faster and be able to promote ICT in a much faster and efficient way.

This is true. It’s great to see rural resident companies taking the initiative to get their communities connected. Generally the big telcos don’t prioritise rural areas because they consider them unviable. It’s important for these communities to take responsibility themselves and do all they can to have connectivity.

Maybe this relationship between Internet Society, TelOne and Murambinda Works can serve as a model for how to bring internet access to rural areas in Zimbabwe and Africa.

Quick NetOne, Telecel, Africom, Econet Airtime Recharge

The post TelOne Working With A Murambinda Company To Expand Internet Coverage – Good Model For Rural Connectivity appeared first on Techzim.