Mobile operators are leaving money on the table in the very communities they struggle to serve. While full mobile towers demand huge upfront investments and long payback periods, Guest Internet controllers offer Telcos a low‑cost way to light up these small communities with paid WiFi access using satellite internet.

Mobile Telecom companies know that it is not economically viable to provide a phone and data service in every small community. A community has to be a minimum size to ensure that the investment of a mobile phone infrastructure can be recovered within a reasonable time frame. The mobile infrastructure investment will include the 4G-LTE tower, plus the fiber landline or microwave link that will connect the tower to the Telco's network. A tower location will also need power plus backup energy storage. The cost of this infrastructure exceeds $1M USD. The result is that millions of small communities around the world have no phone or data service. The community residents may have mobile phones that they can use when visiting larger communities that do have mobile phone infrastructure.

This situation changed with the introduction of low cost satellite Internet services. The satellite service provided by Starlink is installed worldwide. Individuals who have the financial means can install the Starlink service. However the Starlink service is too expensive for the member of a rural community.

Several Telecom companies are now providing a WiFi Internet service for small communities using a much lower cost infrastructure solution that combines the Guest Internet service management system together with one or more Starlink antennas. A 4G-LTE infrastructure will cost in excess of $1M USD, however the Guest Internet WiFi infrastructure for a community will cost less than $10K USD, and that includes providing fixed wireless access (FWA) to homes in addition to access for mobile devices.

The diagram shows the Guest Internet community WiFi Internet service.

The Telco has several methods to charge community residents for the Internet service. Two popular methods are listed below.

• Payment using Mobile Money via the mobile operators gateway.
• Subscription for FWA customers managed via the mobile operators billing system.

The Guest Internet cloud management system has a Mobile Money gateway service that permits a community member to make a pay-on-demand purchase of Internet access online. The Mobile Money gateway communicates with the mobile operators Mobile Money API payment interface.

The Guest Internet cloud service has an API that can be used by the mobile operator subscriber management system to activate and deactivate FWA subscribers who are connected to the community WiFi network and to set rate plans for those subscribers.

The WiFi community Internet service does not permit a mobile phone to make voice calls or send text messages through the mobile operators network, however there are many voice call and messaging applications, such as Whatsapp, that the community resident can used. The resident must purchase a phone from the mobile operator in order to have a valid phone number to register the Whatsapp application. This will stimulate the mobile operators sales of mobile phones, adding income from the community WiFi Internet projects.

Guest Internet has made it possible for any Telco anywhere in the world to install a low cost Internet service in any rural community, no matter how big or how small.

Contact Guest Internet for further information about providing a rural community Internet service.

support@guest-internet.com