An adventurous team of Telecoms Firewall experts from Cellusys have covered an astonishing 18,000km in old Toyota Land Cruiser Prados, travelling from Barcelona to Cape Town.
Trading Zoom meetings and air travel for a more grounded connection with their customers across Africa, seven people and three cars embarked on the epic voyage, which commenced on October 1, 2023, and concluded five months later. The journey was not just an exercise in endurance but a quest to explore mobile connectivity across the continent, particularly in rural regions.
Setting off initially in 2019 from the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with plans to end at the MTN (now Bayobab) WAS#12 conference in Cape Town, the journey had to be paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cellusys team resumed their journey this year, and, joined by renowned adventurer and journalist Nick Redmayne, documented and shared their experiences in order to shed light on the advancements in mobile technology in Africa.
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The expedition was aimed at rethinking customer interactions and gaining firsthand experience of mobile network usability across various African countries. This journey not only heightened awareness of mobile connectivity’s progress in remote areas but also led to tangible contributions such as launching a Coding Bootcamp in Ghana for 75 youths and raising funds for Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) and Moroccan women’s micro-enterprises.
Dawood Ghalaieny, Chairman of Cellusys, emphasised the importance of understanding the diverse environments and challenges their customers face, noting the uniqueness of each country’s success factors, economic challenges, and regulatory environments. This insight is crucial for Cellusys, a company that specializes in providing operators with technology for clear insights and comprehensive control over their signalling, with a focus on security, IoT, roaming, and analytics applications.
A significant revelation from the trip was the impact of mobile money in rural Africa, facilitated by the efforts of AFRICA MOBILE NETWORKS LIMITED (AMN) in building cell phone towers in previously unconnected areas. This enhanced connectivity has made transactions safer and more convenient, supporting platforms like MTN’s new international remittances platform for cross-border money transfers.
Cellusys’ journey through Africa has not only validated the reliability and security of mobile networks in rural communities but also underscored the potential of platforms like MoMo to drive financial inclusion across the continent. For more stories and insights from their road trip, follow Cellusys on LinkedIn. If anything else, it has validated the magnificent off-roading and adventuring capabilities of Toyota’s Land Cruisers.