By NEBERT MULENGA
RURAL areas that have often been marginalised and cut off from the usage of state-of-the-art telecommunication facilities are now getting connected and opening up, thanks to a new project that uses satellite antennas to pick a signal.
The project, currently running on a pilot basis in Mumbwa and Kaoma districts, is being implemented by a South African organisation, Connect Africa, which seeks to promote communication services in areas that are often isolated from the national telecommunications grid.
By providing satellite-networked phones, Connect Africa is empowering rural communities with cheaper communication alternatives which, in the long run, will enable poor communities to have a say in shaping poverty alleviation policies.
According to Dean Mulozi, the national coordinator for Connect Africa in Zambia, the introduction of the new technology has been necessitated by the limited capacity of the three mobile service providers to cover the entire country.
Whereas the mobile phone service providers depend on the country’s international gateway and can only service areas where they have mounted their antenna boosters, Connect Africa phones use satellite antennas to locate signals and are powered by solar panels, thereby making it possible to be connected even in the remotest of areas where there are no mobile phone signals.
“We still have so many people in this country who have no access to cheaper and affordable means of communication, especially in rural areas,” Mr Mulozi said.
Although cellular phone usage in Zambia has become the most popular and effective means of communication, analysts say the technology has been concentrated only in the cities and communities along the line of rail.
It is estimated that only about four million of Zambia’s over 11 million population are able to use cellular phones as a means of communication, whereas much of the population in rural areas remains largely unserviced by the three commercial mobile phone service providers.
“There is such a high demand for the services. We want to expand the programme to cover the entire country and cater for all rural districts. All the districts not connected (to the mobile phone grid) must be reached,” Mr Mulozi said.
Even in the two districts where the project is running, demand for the service has already outstripped supply with thousands of people having to walk over 10 kilometres to the nearest point to make a phone call.
There are only six telephone handsets catering for an average of 4,000 people per phone.
As a result, Connect Africa has had to increase the allocation of credit for some phones from US$50 per week— which is often used up in less than a day— to $135 for the same period.
To make a call, the beneficiaries of the new technology pay K2,000 per minute for all local calls and double the amount for the same duration for an international call, but they reckon it is far better and cheaper than having to scribble a letter.
Enock Kamwaya, 36, a peasant farmer at Kaoma’s TBZ farm bloc, said: “This amount is nothing compared to how we used to communicate in the past. We would write letters that would take over two months to be replied to, or we would not even receive a reply. But a phone call gives you an answer immediately, so we don’t write letters now.”
The usage of the technology is slowly proving effective and helpful in the manner rural farmers conduct their businesses.
“We are benefiting from this programme. Now we can communicate with the outside world. As farmers, we connect with different organisations such as World Vision, Oxfam, and the World Wildlife Fund to help us with fertiliser or markets for our produce.
“This plays a major role in our development; we wish every household could have a phone,” Mr Kamwaya said.
For the 10,000 peasant farmers at the TBZ farm bloc, communication comes at a high price. In the absence of the satellite phones, people are forced to travel a distance of 70 kilometres to Kaoma town centre to communicate with the outside world.
“Sometimes, when this phone is not working, and there is an emergency such as a funeral, we are forced to board a bus to Kaoma town. We pay K60,000 to go and make a call,” disclosed 52-year-old Mildred Muwanei, who was found in a group of people standing in disorderly manner in front of a pigeon-hole window with small pieces of paper in their hands.
Inside was a telephone booth and an operator who kept dialing one number after the other and pushing the receiver through the window to the callers as he received one piece of paper after the other.
“This is the only place where I can make a call from. Otherwise, I might come later and find the person I am calling has switched off the phone, or this phone is not working,” Ms Muwanei explained.
According to sub-chieftainess Mulendema, a traditional leader in Mumbwa, the satellite phones could not have come at a better time.
Her chiefdom is located along the highway connecting Western Province to Lusaka, and both towns on her end – Mumbwa and Kaoma – are connected to the national telecommunications grid under Zain, MTN, and Cell Z.
At a time when the Government is striving to improve infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, sub-chieftainess Mulendema represents the plight of thousands of Zambians who are living within a reachable radius from the highways, yet are too far away from communication services.
“We are very lucky to be using this phone. Our problems are now minimised. We used to climb that hill (about six kilometres away) to make a phone call by tapping into the stray waves from Mumbwa (about 50 kilometres away),” the traditional leader said, pointing to a nearby mountain on the northern side of her village.
“It was a huge problem for women like me. Even then, we could only make local calls (within Zambia); this one is able to phone anywhere. Now we don’t just rely on the road. When we have a problem, we come here to phone cheaply and we ask our relatives for anything that we want. Life is better this way.”
In commenting on the impact of the innovation on rural communities, Lotty Kakubo, spokesperson of the Communications Authority of Zambia (CAZ), said the Government’s telecommunications regulatory body would soon issue a comprehensive statement after conducting a feasibility assessment of the installations.
“CAZ supports the efforts by other institutions to contribute to the extension of services in unserviced areas,” Mr Kakubo said.
The pilot project for the rural service delivery network is expected to close this month end after which the CAZ will assess its impact in benefiting communities and determine whether it should be rolled out across the country.
source: Sunday Times of Zambia Online