BRCK has successfully run its Moja Wi-Fi platform on public buses in Kigali, Rwanda for just under two years now. Moja, delivered through our SupaBRCK, has been deployed in about 300 buses in partnership with a local Rwanda ICT group that specializes in smart and interactive IT solutions for the transport sector. The service, providing free access to the internet, has been popular with local commuters. Things have been looking up for the Rwandese as they easily engage on digital social platforms, gain access to educational material, government services, e-commerce, entertainment, and occasionally browse through offline content available on the SupaBRCK CDN. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in Rwanda began, things have been challenging for most Rwandese, especially those in low-income neighborhoods.

COVID-19 in Rwanda

Rwanda confirmed its first COVID-19 case on the 14th of March and one week later, the government imposed a two-week countrywide lockdown, allowing only minimal movement, mostly for essential services, such as buying food and medication. As the country approached the end of the 14-day lockdown, the government issued extensions up to the 30th of April, as new infection cases are being reported.

In Kigali there are about 400 health workers stationed at the Kigali Convention Centre tasked with coordinating the control and management of the virus spread. The main designated testing and treatment center is at the Kanyinya Health Centre in the capital and other district isolation centres around the country. Several hotels have been designated as quarantine centres as well. Up to 500 daily tests are conducted.

Initial incidences of misinformation on social media platforms to the masses confined at home were curbed early on by the deployment of drones to disseminate correct information around the country. The WHO also intervened by collaborating with Facebook (who own the Whatsapp platform) to minimize the possible number of message forwards.

Connectivity Inequity

During this lockdown, the wide digital divide has vividly come into play as a big chunk of the population in the low-income neighborhoods in urban areas miss out on information available on digital platforms. High data costs prohibit this section of the citizenry from access to important news, contact with friends and relatives, and generally participating in conversations on social networks. This shows how a crisis can severely impact the less privileged to the point of denying some very basic human rights enjoyed in democracies around the world.

Buses with Moja WiFi, parked and not currently in use in Kigali, Rwanda.

Schools and colleges, including both public and private universities have remained closed since the 16th March for an initial two-week duration. Many students have been accessing e-learning material from online platforms. Data costs have been prohibitive, though, and many students from poor backgrounds also do not have the user equipment to connect to the resources provided. Even though on the 25th March some telcos like MTN partnered with both the Ministries of ICT and Education to afford the learners zero data charges, many will still miss out on this opportunity for lack of the right equipment like smartphones and/or computers.

Higher internet traffic has also been registered from online shoppers for delivery of foodstuffs, medicine, and other merchandise. Many Rwandese have in this period made an increased use of the few available fintech platforms from their homes as well, as queues in banking halls continue to dwindle.

BRCK’s Rwanda Team

As things started slowing down a few days before the total lockdown in Rwanda, the BRCK field team in Kigali had put in place apt measures to suit their new ways of doing things under the increasingly changing circumstances. The team observed the WHO recommended regulations of keeping safe distances, and usage of precautionary items like face masks and gloves. They also slowed down on field visit frequency. The team kept busy collating helpful COVID-19 related content in the local language, a few of which ran on the BRCK COVID-19 platform on the Kigali network. Unfortunately, the network was switched off in the advent of the lockdown.

Overall, the lockdown does seem to be having a positive impact on limiting infection and death rates from the virus. The government is due to review the lockdown situation soon, as the ordinary Rwandese hold their breath, hoping for at least some gradual opening up, especially for the business community. As the whole world grapples with what the new normal post COVID-19 will be, there is still an air of optimism among the Rwandese.  The lockdown period has taught many how to leverage and potentially improve the existing digital platforms and infrastructure to do things in different and largely better and more efficient ways.

Providing connectivity in remote regions of Kenya is challenging. I would know. After staying in Dadaab Refugee Camp for well over six years, providing access to the internet to refugees and humanitarian workers, I imagined I had experienced the toughest connectivity scenario possible. Well, that was before I scaled the heights of the Lolldaiga Hills Wildlife Conservancy with BRCK.

BRCK started testing its LTE network in early 2019 and has built quite a few towers in both rural and peri-urban Laikipia County. Some of these locations are completely off the power grid, and all BRCK sites are fully solar-powered with battery backup. This is a data-only network, which is becoming increasingly popular in that part of the country.

As we drove north through Nanyuki township three hours after leaving Nairobi, I kept flipping through the Google driving app. I was trying to get a bearing on how far we were, as my other three colleagues chatted animatedly.  We eventually turned onto a dirt road leading up the north hill of the conservancy. From the top, there’s a beautiful view of Mount Kenya. This is where the civil works teams were putting the final touches on our very first BRCK LTE tower. It was going to be our main network distribution hub for this region. The site selection was calculated carefully, located at the vantage point right at the top of the hill.

To the southwest is a breathtaking view of Nanyuki, with its agricultural machinery showrooms and teeming with British soldiers donning military fatigues. Just behind the central business district of this township is our main fibre optic cable termination point. It sits at the foot of a 60-meter angular communication tower.

After assessing the final works at Lolldaiga Hills, we reviewed our plan for the following day.  After confirming all was done to our satisfaction, we embarked on the journey back to our hotel in Nanyuki. As we got to the foot of the hill, just as the sun descended behind a few dark clouds, we encountered another beautiful sight. A herd of about six young jumbos were sinking their trunks into a browning pool of water, under the watchful eyes of two senior elephants on higher ground across the water.

BRCK delivers high throughput internet traffic to the Lolldaiga tower via AirFibre radio technology wirelessly from the Nanyuki tower. On installation day, the four of us formed two strong teams stationed at each end of this link. With vast experience in radio aiming and antenna alignment, the climbing duo was prepared for the challenging task at the top of the two towers. At that distance (about 18-19 kilometers) there’s an emphasis on precision in order to have a consistent and reliable point-to-point link between the two radios on the towers.

Notwithstanding the wealth of experience we had at our disposal, the task still took some doing. We also had plenty of remote input and support from the Network Operating and Monitoring teams back in Nairobi. And even as we finalized the link, my mind was already at work thinking about the next steps. I drew diagrams on how to arrange the numerous pieces of equipment we expected to set up at the Lolldaiga relay site, both on the ground and on the tower. Well, it always looks so neat on paper, until you get to the site.

With abundant, consistent and reliable internet bandwidth available at the Lolldaiga relay site, we now needed to figure out how to distribute it to the LTE endpoints and subsequently to end user equipment. This was going to occupy most of the next few months, with plenty of traveling back and forth and involvement from different teams. These include RF engineers, network design and deployment, site selection/negotiation and acquisition, electrical engineers, civil works, structural designers and many others in the periphery.

BRCK has managed to set up quite a few LTE cells in rural Laikipia County. Some radio links span almost 40 kilometers. Beneficiaries of this service include places like Daraja High School, the peri-urban Timau township, Akorino trading centre, Dipatas, and some far-flung locations like Kimanjo near Samburu.

It has not exactly gone like clockwork. Similar to my experience working in Dadaab, providing connectivity in remote regions of this country is not always straightforward. In Laikipia there has been a lot of rescheduling and delays. This is mostly due to lengthy and complex negotiations for tower site acquisitions with the communities that own the land . The outcome, however, is worth it. The silver lining of all this hard work is the figures we’ve started seeing from our usage metrics. We can already observe that these communities are taking advantage of their newly accessible and affordable connectivity.