Vodacom, Orange To Roll Out Solar Cell Towers In Rural Africa

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the telecoms groups said they had "joined hands" to form a rural "towerco" to provide mobile services in the vast rural Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa - it's nearly twice the size of South Africa, and 70 of it is covered in tropical rainforest .

"Through the partnership, the companies will collaborate to build, own and operate solar-powered mobile base stations in underserved areas of the DRC. The initiative will extend network coverage and enable access to telecoms and mobile financial services to up to 19 million people in less densely populated rural communities," the companies said.

"Deploying and operating networks, particularly in deep rural areas, continues to be a significant challenge in the DRC. To bridge the digital divide and expand network coverage in underserved communities, the companies have pledged jointly to construct up to 2 000 new solar-powered base stations over six years, using 2G and 4G technologies," they added.