Telecom26 has tested its cloud-based network in Europe and is now deploying it using mobile network operators in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, the Philippines and elsewhere.
“The sweet spot is in Africa,” said Telecom26’s Robert Koldys, vice president of product strategy. “The primary market is healthcare diagnostics.” He named SystemOne, based in the US and South Africa, as the main healthcare client. Telecom 26 is also working with “one of the largest telematics companies in South America”, Koldys told Capacity.
At the heart of the system is software and routers from a Norwegian company, Celerway Communication, close to Oslo.
“We have developed a software platform for SD-WAN,” Celerway’s CEO and co-founder Audun Fosselie Hansen (pictured) told Capacity. “We provide the software under licence. We’ve built it into a platform for routers, with a cloud management and orchestration system.”
The router has two active 4G receivers, so that one can be connected while the other scans the spectrum for a potentially better signal. And there are broadband and wifi connections, said Hansen.
“We’re going to market this together [with Telecom26],” he added. “You will be able to take it anywhere.”
Private equity-backed Telecom 26 has roaming agreements with operators “in every country except South Korea”, said Koldys, via a number of key mobile-operator partners. “You want to get a good sponsor that has global coverage. We have more than one [roaming partner] in every country. We also own a full core fibre network, with MPLS pipes.”
Apart from healthcare diagnostics, he sees applications in refrigeration for vaccines, with location-based services to track shipments, and in connecting private mobile networks, providing inbound roaming into them. “Right now they’re isolated bubbles.”
