Panchsheel Research – Green Telecom winner 2015

Rural Broadband Access Innovation – Hotspot as Managed Service

Introduction
BlueTown is a Denmark based innovative technology company. BlueTown is focusing 100% on rural area communication solutions in developing countries. BlueTown has developed an end-to-end communication platform, specially designed for the needs and conditions in rural villages of the world. The solution provides out-of-the-box access to the Internet, via a low-cost mobile telephone without the need of a SIM card, or any other device. The solution is based on cost efficient standard technology with limited maintenance, which is easy and fast to deploy, and includes own power supply based on solar energy and rechargeable batteries.

BlueTown has developed an integrated, miniaturized, low-powered low cost Wi-Fi access point controller. It is powered by solar panels and re-chargeable lithium-ion battries. With the power requirement of the complete setup of less than 20 Watts this setup can provide un-interrupted broadband access for up-to 30 hours without any charging. The AP controller provides funcationalities of power control, charge control, RF control, RF control, bandwidth management, quality, security and authentication management as well as POE for APs. In its functionality it is similar to BSC of a celluar network and facilitates the creation of a managed Wi-Fi Hot-spot, while utilizing off the shelf outdoor APs.

BlueTown platform will be connected to existing infrastructure (mast or fiber), and a partnership with local service- and infrastructure providers.

Users connects to the BlueTown base station via Wi-Fi with more than 1 km in
range.
Users connects via traditional handsets or the BlueTown dedicated handset
BlueTown engages with local micro-operators to take care of the base station, selling prepaid broadband and acts as a BlueTown agent; thereby generating employment opportunities.
E-learning, healthcare – and governmental services enables higher standard of living, and attracting commercial activities to rural areas, due to communication capabilities.

Business Model
BlueTown is focussing on a innovative business model with the ISP/Telco. BlueTown shall partner with the ISP/Telco as a Managed Hotspot Service Provider (MHSP) and provide Last Mile as a Managed Service without any CAPEX requirement from ISP/Telco.

With the introduction of such concept the ISP/Telco can focus on their core areas and additionally utilizing their existing infratrucutre to provide end to end high speed broadband access for end users in cost effective, timely and affordable manner; whereas BlueTown shall invest in the creating the last mile access for Broadband in the rural parts of the country.

The ISP/Telco can ride on BlueTown’s last mile and provide broadband services to the end user in a cost effective manner without any CAPEX. When we talk about the potential of this business case in Rural India; it has got immense potential. About 70% of the population in India resides in the rural part of India and there is no data connectivity option available in rural India.

Total population of India is about 1.2 billion+ and about 168 Million+ smartphones in India out of these around 30% of smartphone users are in rural India therefore about 50 million users are our prospect customers. As the cost of smartphones is reducing to a level of sub 50 USD, this number will grow exponentially.

Rollout Plan
BlueTown is focusing on deploying in 3 main markets in parallel: Africa, India and selected countries in South America. The global deployment plan will attract 100M+ subscribers over the coming 5 years in close partnership with local telecommunication service providers, governments, NGO’s and micro-operators.

Value Proposition

BlueTown is investing in the capital intensive Last Mile Segment which is the missing link for the rural parts of India while giving an opportunity to Service Providers to leverage this Asset for hand delivery of broadband services for the masses in rural segment.

The Key Benefits for Service Providers are: