Solar powered telecommunications towers to be deployed in DRC

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Approximately 2,000 solar powered telecommunications towers are set to be built in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is after Orange République Démocratique du Congo (Orange RDC), the second-largest mobile carrier operating in the DRC signed a partnership agreement with NuRAN Wireless, a leading supplier of mobile and broadband wireless solutions for the implementation of the project.

With a proposed network capacity of 2.75G, this project is expected to benefit at least 10 million people, mainly in rural areas.

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“The services initially offered by Orange DRC are based on 2.5G network services and the company may, during the partnership period, request an upgrade of the site in order to deploy internet services requiring more capacity (i.e. 3G, 3.5G, and/or 4G),” says NuRAN.

Giving priority to localities with a population of more than 5,000 inhabitants, the Canadian-based company has 40 months to complete the installation of all the telecommunications masts.

Orange’s strategy to equip its antennas with off-grid solar systems

The partnership between Orange RDC and NuRAN is part of the former’s mother company, (Orange S.A.), strategy to equip its antennas with off-grid solar systems.

The latter has also signed an agreement with Escotel, an energy services company currently focused on Sub-Saharan Africa countries for the supply, installation, operation, and maintenance of decentralized hybrid solar energy and storage systems at 900 telecommunication sites in Sierra Leone, Liberia and, eventually, the DRC.

This strategy is not only aimed to reduce the telecom towers operating costs but also lower their environmental impact.