July 6, 2020
LEXINGTON, Mass., USA & NEW DELHI, INDIA – July 6, 2020 – Vanu, Inc., a provider of equipment, tools and services that allow mobile network operators to profit by serving off-grid communities, today announced that the company was named the winner of the Small Cell Forum’s 2020 SCF Small Cell Award in the Social Impact category. Announced via virtual event, the 12th annual SCF Small Cell Awards honor both technical innovation and commercial success in the global small cell industry. Judges recognized Vanu’s progress towards closing the digital divide by providing mobile connectivity to remote, off-grid markets that have not had opportunities to seize the economic, social and cultural advantages generated by mobile coverage.
“We are thrilled to accept this prestigious award and honored to receive recognition from our industry colleagues,” said Andrew Beard, CEO of Vanu, Inc. “The SCF Small Cell Award is further validation of the unique business model we’ve developed, which removes many of the barriers preventing mobile network operators from effectively serving off-grid markets. Vanu is now actively deploying low TCO cell sites and using our mapping and network planning tools to help MNOs optimize their investment in these unconnected regions – all at a time when the global pandemic has made connectivity more critical than it’s ever been.”
In considering Vanu for the SCF Small Cell Award, judges reviewed a recent case study involving the company’s pre-deployment analysis on behalf of a network operator in sub Saharan Africa. For the analysis, the operator provided five sites being considered and asked for a quote. Rather than provide a standard quote for the five sites, Vanu looked to address the fundamental challenge the operator was trying to address: how to deliver the return on the investment required to provide service to an off-grid region. Using VanuMapsÔ, its patent pending network analysis and planning tool, Vanu was able to provide models of the same area reflecting the potential coverage density based on tower height and output power. With VanuMaps and its low cost, OpenRAN-compliant small cell solutions, Vanu provided the operator with a model capable of achieving a gross margin of 75 percent compared to a gross margin of 5 percent for the five macro sites the operator would have generated using its traditional approach.
“Vanu has a long history of supplying innovative solutions for underserved areas and supporting disaster response,” said Caroline Gabriel, Chair of the SCF Small Cell Awards Judging Panel. “The company’s off-grid offerings are essential for bringing the benefits of connectivity to remote communities.”
About Vanu, Inc.
Vanu provides equipment, tools and services that enable MNOs to profitably serve the 1.2 billion people who do not have connectivity today. Vanu’s solutions combine technology and business model innovations to reduce the total cost of ownership of wireless networks. The company grew out of groundbreaking research in software radio at MIT and was founded in 1998. Vanu is developer of the Anywave™ Base Station. Anywave was the first commercial Radio Access Network (RAN) product to simultaneously support multiple cellular radio standards on the same platform and the first U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-certified software defined radio. Vanu is headquartered in Lexington, MA, with offices in Gurgaon, India, Bangalore, India and in Kigali, Rwanda. For more information, visit www.vanu.com.
Press Contact:
Andy Meltzer
Guyer Group
(617) 821-4829
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