Northen Uganda has got a new ISP today, dubbed Zoom Wireless, and thanks to Volo, a Silicon Valley start-up built helping ISPs and telecom providers in emerging markets to design and deploy fixed wireless broadband services quickly and profitably.
Volo has helped Zoom to design and deploy a carrier-grade fiber-backed last mile WiFi network and integrated with the latest cloud-based management software, enabling Zoom Wireless to use it with 10 times less capital and operating cost compared to the traditional LTE networks.
“Volo’s experts got us up and running from greenfield to market in under 12 weeks. That would have been impossible without them,” said Joseph Walusimbi, General Manager of SINFA Uganda LTD and Zoom Wireless. “Now we have the systems to manage the network and the skills to deploy and expand it. We’ve already exceeded our goals for time to market and customer response to our first of a kind affordable fixed wireless service has been rapid.”
Volo’s software integration and expert network design is helping Zoom Wireless to offer Internet services for corporate customers with speeds from 1-9 Mbps and small business/residential options of 512 kbps, 1 Mbps or 3 Mbps at approximately 50% of the rates of their competitors and no usage caps. Custom-managed WiFi services are also available.
Zoom’s speeds are far behind what ISP’s in the developed world economies offer, but such connectivity is a both miracle and transformative in Northern Uganda even driving real productivity and employment such as SINFA Uganda LTD’s Microwork division, which connected to the network in July to allow employees perform digital business process outsourcing that is 100% reliant on Internet access to download and upload data.
According to Mark Summer, CEO and co-founder of Volo,“With these speeds, the future of the cloud is here. Businesses and consumers can confidently access cloud-based productivity tools that fuel economic growth that include Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, Quickbooks Online and YouTube.”
After Zoom Wireless, Volo is eyeing other providers in Africa to make its cloud-based ISP automation platform available to connect everyone to the internet.