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New
ITU-Nexpedience Partnership
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ITU and Nexpedience team up to boost African
broadband
ITU and Nexpedience, one of the world's leading
suppliers of proprietary point-to-multipoint broadband
infrastructure, are partnering to bring broadband access to
Africa.
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PURPOSE
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WIRELESS BROADBAND
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Under the terms of the deal, Nexpedience will provide 180 new
Expedience base stations worth USD 1 million, to be deployed in
six nations across the continent. The first nation to benefit
from the new infrastructure is Burundi, with deployments also
planned for Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Mali, Rwanda and Swaziland.
Designed to withstand extreme meteorological
conditions and capable of providing up to 32 kilometers of
sector coverage, Nexpedience’s base stations have been
specifically designed for rural deployment. |
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ITU’s Wireless Broadband Network in Africa
project aims to develop and implement wireless broadband
connectivity and applications that will provide free or low-cost
digital access for schools, hospitals, and under-served
populations in rural and remote areas Africa-wide. |
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| WHAT THEY
SAID... |
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BRAHIMA SANOU
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KIRIAKO VERGOS
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HAMADOUN TOURÉ |
Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU’s
Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) emphasized the need
to make developing countries part of the global broadband
revolution:
“This partnership represents another important element in
ITU’s efforts to bring broadband technology to the world – even
in the poorest nations. I am confident that this new partnership
will accelerate broadband uptake right across the African
continent, bringing the power of high-speed connectivity to
users everywhere, from big cities to small villages.” |
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Kiriako Vergos, CEO of Nexpedience said: “Giving
access to broadband technology to underserved populations in
Africa is of great importance to us. There are enormous benefits
to be derived from a ‘broadband-seed’ deployment strategy, and
we decided to partner with ITU because we know that the
organization has the team in place to get it done.” |
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ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré hailed
the new agreement as a “major step forward in getting Africa
connected”. Dr Touré led the establishment of
the Broadband
Commission for Digital Development in 2010, which has the
aim of putting broadband at the heart of the global development
agenda. |
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