Connecting Underserved Communities in South Africa with a Solar Mesh Network

In the midst of South Africa’s power crisis, many in the country face unreliable access to connectivity. The World Bank estimated that 15.6% of South Africans (9.4 million people) did not have access to electricity in 2020, which represents approximately 3.5 million households.

In order to reach unserved off-grid communities across South Africa, the Vernonburg Groups is working with a provider of high-speed internet connectivity in South Africa, to assess the feasibility of deploying affordable, reliable, and solar powered high-speed internet connectivity across these regions.

The Vernonburg Group is supporting this ISP through a comprehensive Feasibility Study and a technology and market trial.  The trial’s objective is to prove the viability of a community-based, solar-powered mesh network; a pilot project will be deployed in Mandela Park, a small township in the O.R. Tambo District of the Eastern Cape. The region has an unstable electric grid and prohibitively expensive mobile data, making it the right environment to test this project. As part of the Feasibility Study, the Vernonburg Group is providing support on human resources review, legal and regulatory review, marketing materials, technical assessment, and financing and economic analyses, which will set the project on the path to its eventual expansion.

The end goal of the project is for the South African ISP to expand in high-density townships, where end users may benefit from the increased affordability, uptime, and coverage provided by the mesh networking solution. This will help provide reliable and affordable internet access to more than five million people living in South Africa's townships.