Zain, Ericsson and GSMA to save lives on Lake Victoria by extending coverage

Press Conference held in Kampala on March 13, 2008 to announce the Lake Victoria CSR initiative left to right:Mr Thomas Sonesson (Ericsson)Mr Chris Gabriel ( CEO of Celtel)
Mr Jesse Moore (GSMA Programme Manager)Mr Bashar Arafeh (COO of Celtel East Africa)
Mr Yesse Oenga ( MD of Celtel Uganda)

Fishman

Lake Victoria view.

March 13, 2008; Kampala, Dar Es Salam, Nairobi
The 200,000 fisherman that work on Lake Victoria will soon have the opportunity to use mobile phones to call for help if they get into trouble on the world’s second largest inland lake. Pan-Africa mobile operator Celtel, a subsidiary of Zain, and Ericsson, in an initiative coordinated by the GSMA’s Development Fund, have committed to extend the mobile networks across the Lake Victoria region, fuelling economic and social development of the lakeside communities and potentially reducing the number of fishing-related deaths each year.

Zain and Ericsson are upgrading Celtel’s existing infrastructure and building an additional 21 radio sites to provide mobile coverage up to 20 kilometers into the lake. This will take about six months and ensure mobile coverage to over 90 percent of the fishing zones, where up to 5,000 people die each year from accidents and piracy.

The project will use Ericsson’s Extended Range software package to more than double the effective range of radio base stations and Ericsson’s Mobile Position System, a location-based service that enables emergency authorities to triangulate the mobile signal of fishermen in distress. Ericsson’s green site solutions, including solar and hybrid power* solutions, will also be utilized to provide electric power to the base stations in the more remote island areas.[ more] http://www.zain.com/