VNL

High Level Delegation from Brazil visits VNL solar powered sites 18 Apr, 2012

Village children with members of the Brazilian Delegation in front of a VNL WorldGSM™ Village Base station on the roof of a house.

The Fourth BRICS Summit was hosted in New Delhi on 29 March 2012 under the overarching theme of “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity.”

On the sidelines of the summit, VNL was privileged to host a high level Delegation from Santa Catarina (SC) State, Brazil, who visited VNL sites in villages in the district of Alwar, Rajasthan, a few hours away from Delhi.

The Chief of the Delegation was State Congressman and 1st Secretary State Govt. of Santa Catarina, Dr. Jaílson Lima da Silva accompanied by State Congresswoman
Ms. Dirce Heidersheidt, State Congressman Mr. Mauro Nadal, Mr. Ronério Heiderscheidt, Mayor of Palhoça City, SC state, Mr. Paulo Roberto Eccel, Mayor of Brusque, SC state,
Mr. Ailton Nazareno Soares, Rector of UNISUL (University of Santa Catarina), Ms. Katia Sarlet Rezende, from the Department of Institutional Relations of Santa Catarina, Mr. Jucinei Cardoso, Journalist ALESC TV and Radio and Dr. Jean Christian Weiss, Lawyer.

Members of the Delegation get to know the WorldGSM™ site in detail

The Delegation was keen to understand Indian innovation and visiting the VNL solar powered GSM and broadband sites in the villages gave them insight into how sustainable technologies could be used to meet the challenges of development.

VNL‘s award winning WorldGSM™ technology is ideally suited to establishing sustainable GSM & Broadband  networks for unconnected populations in small towns and remote locations. This is a catalyst in the socio-economic development of the community and adds to the GDP.

The Delegation was thrilled to see the technology at work in the villages and spent several hours interacting with village folk and schoolchildren,braving the heat and dust that is typical at this time of the year.

In the classroom with children: (L to R) Mr. Ravi Ailawadhi, Dr. Jailson Lima da Silva and Ms. Dirce Heidersheidt

Broadband for village schools : Dr. Jailson Lima da Silva (L) talks to a young student along with Mr. Ravi Ailawadhi (R) in front of a VNL Solar Powered Rural Internet Kiosk – “Gurukul”.

Members of the Delegation with staff and students and village folk at the village school. (L toR) Ms. Dirce Heidersheidt, Dr. Jean Christian Weis
and Mr. Ronério Heiderscheidt

Members of the Delegation with staff, students and more village folk at the village school. (Standing L to R) Dr. Jailson Lima da Silva, Mr. Ravi Ailawadhi,
Mr. Mauro Nada and Ms. Katia Sarlet Rezende (seated in center)

Mr. Ailton Nazareno Soares and Dr. Jailson Lima da Silva access the Internet on their laptop and handheld devices using broadband connectivity over Wi-Fi brought by VNL’s solar powered WorldGSM™ solution

In June 2011, VNL signed a “General Protocol of Intent of Partnership in Strategic and Future Projects” with A Fundacao Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina - (UNISUL), A Universidade Estadual de Goias-UEG,and A Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso (UNEMAT).

The Protocol aims to facilitate technical, scientific and technological cooperation through four Pilot Projects in the State of Santa Catarina ,Mato Grosso and Goias -specifically in the municipalities of Palhoca and Aguas Mornas.

These projects are :

1. Environmental Education as Strategic for the development of scientific knowledge and skills
2. Digital Inclusion by Distance Courses
3. Technology in Fishing Community
4. VNL Technology implementation for Strategic Family Health of Palhoca City

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Diesel to Power Telecom Towers - The Big Problem 5 Apr, 2012

Way back in 2004, VNL began its journey to develop WorldGSM™ – a completely solar powered GSM and broadband network solution for rural and remote locations. Top of the agenda: cut down power consumption and remove diesel from the equation – otherwise network viability and profitability would never be possible. In the past 7 years we’ve watched as green power has moved from the domain of CSR initiative to the centre of the OPEX debate.

A traditional Diesel powered GSM Site

How bad is the diesel problem? Let’s start with India: According to E&Y and FICCI * “Currently, telecom towers consume an average of about 5-6 kilo watt of energy coupled with an average of 8 hours of diesel generator running time due to power outages. On average, 27 million units of electricity are consumed per day. Average diesel consumption per site per hour is about 2.5 liters, translating to 6 million liters of diesel per day. This translates to consumption of more than 2 billion liters of diesel per year for cell sites, which is subsidized by GoI.”

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India estimates the diesel challenge as follows: “India has presently around 400,000 telecom towers, with average power consumption per tower being 3 to 4 kW. Assuming 8 hours of operation by DG sets, an average fuel consumption of 8760 liters of diesel every year per tower, total carbon emission on account of diesel use by telecom towers is estimated to be around 10mt of CO2, while the emissions on account of power drawn from the grid by towers is estimated to be around 6mt of CO2.”

Africa has a similar story to tell.

In a recent article in extensia on Telcos in Nigeria eying alternative power to run the network the figures are staggering: between MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, there are 20,000 base stations that consume a total of 49.5 million liters of diesel to power the sites every month, at a total cost of N8.4 billion. All this, for Nigeria alone.

The rising costs of energy bills can actually force some CEO’s to comment that a way to address this is to hike call rates. See this interesting article from Balancing Act here.

This VNL WorldGSM™ Site in Africa saves $2000 per month

VNL is clear. The long term solution lies in reducing the power consumption to a level that a renewable solution is justifiable on all counts: Capex, Opex, and Payback. VNL has been at the forefront of the “diesel free network” revolution. In Africa VNL deployments of it’s WorldGSM™ solar powered voice and data network solution in rural locations have saved $2000 per site per month by removing diesel from the equation. Compared to a traditional site in a rural area a 222 configuration VNL Rural site can give up to $30,000 in savings each year– considering that outages run as high as 16 hours a day in many cases.

Going green is Green is good for business. WorldGSM™ is showing the way!!
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The power of mobile phones 16 Mar, 2012

“I feel like I’m human now, not cut-off from my world, no longer isolated” were the words of Ram Kishan, in a village of Alwar district ,commenting on the power of his mobile phone, in an interview for the ITU-UN film “ICT’s for a Better Future”. His village was connected to the BSNL Rajasthan network through VNL’s solar powered GSM and Broadband solution as part of a pilot project for India’s USO Fund. You can see the film clip of Ram Kishan’s village and VNL’s solar powered WorldGSM™ base station here:

Mobile phones are driving economic growth in the developing world. But that’s not all – networks in developing countries also have valuable lessons to offer the West. Read more in this interesting article by Suzie Christodulu in cellular-news.

Introducing WorldGSM™ 15 Mar, 2012

Remote communities, like those throughout rural India and other remote regions of the world, are not full of mobile network engineers. A truly rural-optimized base station must be simple enough to be assembled by non-professionals — often people who cannot read or write. Mobile operators have great challenges deploying wireless network solutions in places where electrical grids are non-existent or unreliable, road access is frequently difficult, and where ARPUs are so low that the operators can’t justify traditional GSM deployment strategies, let alone high speed broadband access. VNL’s solar powered WorldGSM™ for rural networks is the future of rural wireless telephony and internet access through a cascading star network architecture that places coverage and capacity where it is needed, quickly, affordably, and with minimal OPEX and CAPEX.

Gurukul Internet Kiosk Solution

Broadband for Village Schools

VNL’s Village Internet Kiosk solution - “Gurukul” - enables rural communities to access high speed internet without the need for connection to the power grid or diesel generators. Earlier these services were only possible for urban areas.

High speed broadband internet access enables village children to take advantage of distance learning and other elearning initiatives, while other village residents can utilize the system for efinance and egovernance tasks, connecting the unconnected in rural areas.

Wrap Up of Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain February 27 - March 1, 2012. 12 Mar, 2012

The world’s largest industry defining B2B event in telecommunications attracted over 67,000 attendees this year. Nearly 1,500 companies showcased their organisations through exhibition stands and hospitality space across eight halls at the spectacular Fira Montjuïc venue, covering a space of 58,000 square meters.

Sharing our passion to Connect the Unconnected: A large number of visitors dropped in at the VNL booth on all days.

VNL’s stand was in Hall 2, showcasing the award winning WorldGSM™ solar powered GSM and Broadband solution. This year the theme of the stall was “Green is Good for Business” and VNL focused on sites from Africa and South Asia where operators realized Opex savings of up to $24,000 per site in a year – much the same savings that VNL has delivered across the world in different operator networks.

VNL’s real life Village Base Station on display.

The centre of attention at the VNL stand was a real life Village Base Station (VBTS) which, with 2 solar panels, occupied a space of just 2×2 meters on the floor of the stand. VNL also shared details of the WorldGSM™ solution developed for remote islands in Indonesia to deliver affordable GSM & Broadband services to rural communities on these islands. VNL’s Zero Opex and payback theme attracted a large number of visitors from the telecom world who were interested in knowing more about VNL’s deployments and the results.

Rajiv Mehrotra in the panel discussion “Networks: Infrastructure Costs in The Age of Austerity”

On 29th February, Rajiv Mehrotra Chairman & CEO, participated in a panel discussion on “Networks: Infrastructure Costs in The Age of Austerity” - in today’s environment of austerity, operators are rethinking business models and searching out new solutions and revisiting old ones to deliver lower-cost networks. This lively session highlighted some of the most outstanding examples of ingenuity from across the world.

Also on display at the VNL stand for the very first time were special applications of VNL’s GSM and Broadband innovation used for privately owned and managed communication networks in remote industrial locations and strategic operations.

Rajiv Mehrotra, Chairman & CEO VNL, explaining the details of VNL’s WorldGSM™ the Hon. Minister of Communications & IT, Govt. of India, Shri Kapil Sibal.

Rajiv Mehrotra Chairman and CEO, VNL, discusses special applications of VNL’s solution in privately owned and managed communication networks

Across the aisle from VNL was the Shyam stand, showcasing solutions from India’s leading name in IP cellular backhaul.

Farewell Montjuic!!
Mobile World Congress 2013 moves to a new home Fira de Barcelona Gran Via – see you there!!

Connecting Remote Industries 26 Feb, 2012

Privately Owned and Managed GSM & Broadband Networks

Establishing a communication network for industries in difficult topographies and hazardous operational environments in remote locations has always been a challenge. The availability of the right network has direct bearing on operations management, security, health, safety, overall employee productivity, disaster management and satisfaction. One such activity is mining.

Given the level of complexity and risk in any mining operation, the ideal communication network must introduce efficiencies at all levels. VNL’s GSM and Broadband solution for mines is highly cost effective, rapidly deployable and robust. This unified communication network operates as a privately owned and remotely managed network.