Leading last mile licensed fixed wireless access provider Comsol has completed a successful 12-month proof of concept (POC) in KwaZulu-Natal, proving that uncapped high-speed internet access is not only possible but also profitable at below R300 per month per household.
Using standards-based 4G/5G fixed wireless access (FWA), Comsol has connected a community of over 300 homes at varying charges, depending on the solution, at a cost of less than R300 per month. The POC has demonstrated an effective return on investment of under 18 months for Comsol, while generating annuity revenue for a local virtual network operator (VNO) and improving the lives of local businesses, education institutions and community members.
Comsol CEO Iain Stevenson explains this dramatic progress is possible by using standards-based FWA, which uses open, cloud-native platforms and mass market manufacturing to slash the costs of rolling out connectivity using licensed spectrum.
“Standards-based FWA can help bridge the digital divide,” he says. “Fibre is effectively connecting the higher LSM segment of the market. While fibre is passing 4 million homes and 500 000 businesses, only around 1.7 million homes and 115 000 businesses are connected and serviced by fibre.
According to Stevenson, 90% of homes and businesses in the country are not connected by fibre. “This is astounding, considering the quantum of investment invested by the fibre operators in rolling out fibre. Connectivity is a human right, and nobody should have sub-grade, capped connections. People need ‘all-you-can-consume', high-speed connections at price points that will trigger mass market adoption,” he says.
As Comsol is a pioneer in delivering cloud-native converged open core licensed spectrum FWA networks, Stevenson outlined the advantages of standards-based FWA at the recent Digital Africa Conext Conference 2022 in Cape Town.
He explained that fibre economics work best in smaller, discrete geographies, where high target penetration rates assure returns on the high infrastructure cost. However, mainly mobile connections are used in areas bypassed by fibre, which is costly for the average South African.
“FWA can fill in the coverage gaps. Imagine that all the undersea cables connecting South Africa are the roots of the tree, the branches are the fibre and fixed wireless access are the leaves – that is the true power of FWA coverage,” Stevenson said. “With the emergence of standards-based FWA, with open platforms and mass market component production, the costs of FWA have dropped significantly,” he said.
“The traditional way of deploying FWA was to use proprietary platforms, which adds to the cost. The Telecom Infra Project (TIP), comprising hardware and software vendors, have agreed on industry standards which allow for efficiencies, scale and more cost-effective deployments,” he said.
“By creating industry standards, TIP allows for improved efficiencies and scale for more cost-effective and faster deployment in underserved areas globally. TIP has changed the network architecture from traditional proprietary vendor deployments to standardised industry architectures."
Stevenson adds: “We have deployed a cloud-native open-core software platform; there are costs to build, interface and make it work, which we have achieved at a fraction of the traditional cost. We also have virtualised the radio access network (RAN) components, making it cheaper. A key piece to the overall solution is licensed spectrum – and Comsol holds 392MHz of the 3.7GHz and 28GHz bands in South Africa that are solely focused on the deployment of FWA."
Having previously focused on the enterprise space, Comsol is now looking at the residential market and lower LSM communities. The KZN proof of concept proves that standards-based licensed FWA is an excellent, cost-effective solution for communities. “The businesses and homeowners are very happy – they have a premium service, priced right, and they can consume as much as they want. We have a virtual network operator who lives in the community, supported by Comsol expertise for installations and maintenance. The pilot illustrated that the economics work; we now plan to expand this model to other areas,” Stevenson says.
Comsol is in the process of adapting its enterprise VNO model for communities. This will enable entrepreneurs to work with Comsol to roll-out affordable, premium quality access in underserved areas across South Africa.
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