Install Site Portfolio

Smart Off-Grid Establishes Scalable Telecom Service

Vanu, South Africa

Clear Blue partnered with Vanu to bring cellular service to regions of South Africa where notoriously unreliable power infrastructure has made implementing connectivity cost prohibitive and challenging.

Why Smart Off-Grid? 

In South Africa, extremely unreliable power infrastructure and low customer density mean that providing connectivity is not commercially viable for service providers. Developing a low-cost, reliable power solution is critical to establishing a sustainable business model and bringing reliable service to the significant unconnected population.

Results

Clear Blue provided its Nano-Grid solution to initially power 2G/3G service at pilot sites in South Africa. The Clear Blue team remotely managed the systems and resolved issues through Clear Blue's advanced, cloud management service Illumience, to maximize the uptime of these sites to ensure reliable connectivity. The team was able to get advanced notifications of issues and solve them by managing power, controlling cooling and rebooting systems all remotely. Clear Blue's remote management and control allows for smaller systems to save upfront costs by 40% and enables remote maintenance and troubleshooting, saving ongoing costs by up to 80%. Ultimately, Clear Blue’s Smart Off-Grid solution was critical for supporting a profitable business model for telecommunications in South Africa and since the pilots,15 additional sites have been commissioned to provide increased service.