Huawei releases RuralStar Lite to promote digital inclusiveness

At the Mobile World Congress 2019, Huawei released an innovative rural network solution, RuralStar Lite. This solution is specialized to cost-efficiently bring voice and mobile broadband (MBB) services to rural villages with a population of 500 to 1000 people while keeping the return on investment (ROI) period within three years for operators. Provided as a supplement to Huawei’s rural network solution RuralStar, RuralStar Lite is another example of Huawei’s continued effort to promote digital inclusiveness around the world.

The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) survey concludes that there are still more than 700 million people globally without any access to mobile network coverage, most of them living in rural areas, representing a pressing demand for mobile communication.

Huawei released the RuralStar solution in an effort to bring mobile connections to these unconnected rural areas. This solution has reached more than 90 networks worldwide, serving to provide mobile access for hundreds of millions of people. For most of them, it’s the first time in their lives they have ever enjoyed access to the mobile world thanks to this solution.

Boasting three significant innovations, RuralStar successfully addresses a number of long-standing issues of network development in rural areas where transmission is difficult to reach, infrastructure is costly to build, the power supply is unstable, and deployment requires a long time to complete. For operators, the ROI period can be within three years for a rural network that covers more than 1000 users. To expand connections to unconnected villages having a population of 500 to 1000 people, Huawei released the RuralStar Lite solution to accommodate the local service characteristics of few connections and small coverage areas.

RuralStar Lite features power consumption of as low as 200 watts. Fitted with four solar panels, this solution greatly simplifies the power supply. It allows all related equipment to be installed on poles with a height of 6 m to 9 m, without the need to install supporting rods and build fences. With these advantages added together, project costs are significantly reduced and the total cost of ownership (TCO) decreases markedly.

RuralStar Lite has so far been successfully deployed in Zambia. The deployment demonstrates that RuralStar Lite is able to extend voice and data services to 500 to 1000 users in a village covering a radius of 1 km to 2 km. In addition, the ROI period is expected to be less than three years for operators.

“The geographical isolation makes mobile communication a more pressing demand for those living in rural areas. Huawei’s RuralStar solution is cost efficient and allows for a brief deployment duration and a short ROI period, offering new ways of thinking about mobile coverage in rural areas. RuralStar Lite moves a further step towards promoting digital inclusiveness by making the digital world accessible to those in remote villages,” said Hao Yingtao, President of Wireless Site Domain of Huawei’s Wireless Network Product Line.

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