At the Mobile World Congress- Barcelona where at one end , the greatest names in Mobile world were displaying their wares , Nokia talking about their upcoming OS MeeGo in collaboration in Intel’s Moblin , Samsung showing Wave with their Bada platform, Sony Ericsson beaten but not surrendered had Vivaz and Xperia X10 Pro and Mini on display and LG was picketing are you a Mini outside the venue showing their LG Mini and the God Father of technology Eric Schmidt starting his presentation with “ The Future is Mobile “ on the other hand there were a handful of companies working in background making dreams of all the bigwigs a reality .
How mighty all these companies are, fighting at the top of the Pyramid where the money and profits but low volumes lie, companies are fast realizing that it’s the bottom of the pyramid they should be worried about and target as these consumers are likely to improve their lifestyle and disposable income with availability of inexpensive reliable communications and tapping them now means a brand loyal customer base which will upgrade to the same brand which helped them grow in social status .
This is the market of the next billion which mobile companies are effectively targeting through every mean possible .
To lure this billion people market , handset manufacturers like Nokia are shifting to services industry by offering life improvement services in selected markets such Life Tools , an application which is keeping farmers in India abreast with the changing market trend updating them with crop prices , Urea and Seed prices , current market conditions , weather conditions along with Bollywood entertainment and education them by featuring word of the day and all this available at the nominal cost of USD 1 per month .
It’s not only the services , sturdy mobile phones with dust resistant coatings , scratch resistant screens , longer battery life , faster charging times , builtin torch and multiple phonebooks and credit management applications are attracting the customers to have one phone for the whole family .
As per GSM Association : A 10% increase in a country’s mobile penetration results in a 1.2% increase in GDP.”
But however the great services and phones Nokia and likes provide to consumers , they are constrained by one thing , GSM Signal availability .
Here comes companies like VNL , an Indian outfit with offices in Sweden , VNL was recently awarded Green Mobile Award for Best Green Product / Initiative at World Mobile Congress 2010 , the company provide world’s first GSM base stations running on solar power .
These base stations , titled WorldGSM , have been designed from scratch to bring communication to the masses where traditional GSM networks cannot reach .
Using nominal power at 100 W per station , powered by the sun , fully weather proof and easy to erect by regular technical personell , this mictotelecom technology is the key to bring enhance the lifestyle of the rural areas of the world and bring the people spread across the country closer.
The whole setup can be sent on two cart / containers and could even be erected by the unskilled field staff which cannot even read or write . With no ancillary requirements like generators and Air conditioning , the equipment is simple plug it , point it south and play .
This technology work as a GSM Signal repeater , with a number of Village Sites and Rural Sites enhancing the reach of the main GSM network
For Telecom industry in Pakistan , worried about low ARPUs , this technology is near Zero maintenance , with remote software updating and swap and run repairs.
As per an estimation, In India alone , Telecom companies burnt 1.8 billion litres of diesel to power their cell sites in one year , with this technology , the enhanced range and reach can be achieved without high maintenance costs associated with Generators , Air-conditioning and Equipment and provide a Green and Efficient way to cover the rural areas where the next billion mobile customers reside .
