DRC to get solar-powered telecom towers

From the newsletter

Orange and Vodacom have formed a joint venture to build 2,000 solar-powered mobile base stations across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over six years. This initiative aims to expand network coverage to underserved rural communities, providing connectivity and mobile financial services to 19 million people.

• The venture will begin with an initial commitment of 1,000 sites once approvals are obtained. The base stations will use 2G and 4G technology.

• The first station is expected to be operational in 2025. Orange and Vodacom will share active and passive equipment owned by the joint venture as anchor tenants for an initial 20-year term.  

More details

• The DRC had a mobile penetration rate of 51.4% in 2024, a 5.5% rise from the previous year. However, mobile internet penetration remains low at 32.3%.

• The country adopted its National Digital Plan Horizon 2025 in 2019, which aims to leverage technology to drive socio-economic development, improve the lives of Congolese citizens, and bridge the digital divide. Since then, internet penetration has more than doubled.

• However, the country's fast-growing population, with a 3.2% annual growth rate (above Africa's average of 2.42%), means that connecting people to communication and other essential services like energy needs to accelerate to surpass population growth. Otherwise, there will be no progress.

• The country lags in infrastructure and electricity access. It has one of the lowest electricity access rates in the world. In 2024, only 19% of the population had access to electricity, with less than 2% of rural areas electrified. Reaching rural areas far from the grid is expensive, as is extending the grid to power rural telecom towers.

• The uptake of solar power is beneficial because it can be deployed easily without building expensive transmission lines.

Our take

• The DRC's low access to electricity presents both a challenge and an opportunity. It's a challenge for telecom companies setting up towers, but it's also an opportunity for energy companies to provide the power needed for those stations. The telecom market (including mobile, fixed voice, and fixed-broadband services) was valued at $2 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13%.

• Building telecom towers would also mean that locals need electricity to power their devices, creating an additional opportunity for energy companies.