The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded a grant to support an Adaptrum-led project to help improve internet access in rural areas of South Africa. The grant from USTDA will fund several TV White Space (TVWS) deployments with the goal of establishing business and deployment models that can be replicated across the country. The project is intended to demonstrate that TVWS is a feasible business solution for economically and affordably connecting rural South Africa.
Since deploying the first TVWS system in Africa, Adaptrum has sought ways to use TVWS to bring much needed connectivity across Africa, said Haiyun Tang, CEO of Adaptrum. The Adaptrum-led project team is a consortium of US. and South African partners including Microsoft, International Data Corporation and Project Isizwe. The consortium will collaborate with the grant recipient, the Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA), to deploy three TVWS network builds and develop a business plan to help ISPs and their investors understand and take advantage of commercial opportunities with TVWS.
