Accelerating Rural Connectivity: Insights from the GSMA Innovation Fund for Rural Connectivity

There are 400 million people that don’t live in areas with mobile broadband coverage. In recognition of this challenge, the GSMA Innovation Fund for Rural Connectivity was launched to test ways to deploy commercially sustainable mobile broadband networks in rural areas and help identify potential approaches that could be scaled and replicated in similar environments.

Grants were grants awarded to iSAT Africa in Uganda and NuRAN Wireless in Ghana to pilot approaches to rural connectivity. They formed consortiums to deliver turnkey solutions including equipment, deployment and operation and worked in partnership with MTN Uganda and Vodafone Ghana.

This report outlines the solutions implemented by the grantees and looks at the performance and impact of the sites deployed as well as the lessons learnt. It concludes with key recommendations for expanding rural connectivity based on the learnings from the pilots.