Unlocking Rural Mobile Coverage

Overview

Today, around 3.5 billion people are connected to the mobile internet, but over half the world’s population still remain offline and over 750 million people are not covered by mobile broadband networks. Closing the mobile coverage gap is primarily an economic challenge. Uncovered populations typically live in rural locations with low population densities, low per-capita income levels and weak or non-existent enabling infrastructure. This course considers the challenges and opportunities that the public and private sectors face in bringing coverage to the uncovered, thereby giving them access to greater social and economic opportunities.

Course Objectives

• Explore the role of the government and the private sector in improving connectivity.
• Understand how innovation and infrastructure sharing can help bridge the coverage gap.
• Learn about best practices in policy and regulation to foster investment in rural networks.
• Learn from examples of successful rural coverage projects.

Course Enrolment Criteria

This course is open to:

• Regulators
• Policymakers
• Representatives from academia and international organisations working on regulatory or policy issues

We cannot accept applications from individuals working in the private sector or those not involved in policy or regulation.

Course Completion Certificates

All of our courses are certified by the United Kingdom Telecoms Academy (UKTA) and can be used as evidence of professional development.

To qualify for a course completion certificate, you must view all the course sessions and answer correctly all the quiz questions you will find as you progress through the sessions. You will also need to fill out the course survey.

You do not have to complete a final project to earn a course completion certificate but we strongly encourage you to create one. Putting together a final project will give you an opportunity to reflect on the principles covered during the course and help you discover how they could be applied to your own country. If you submit a final project the course trainer will provide you with valuable feedback that you may find useful in your day-to-day work.

Course Structure and Study Time

The course consists of five sessions and you will gain access to all of them on the course start date. You will have the opportunity to ask questions about the content of the course during a live chat session as well as on the course forum.

It should not take you more than two to three hours of study time per week to complete the course in three weeks. You will have, however, six weeks to complete it. If after six weeks you have not completed the course, you will have to start it again next time it is offered.

If you decide to submit a final project, it will probably take you four to six hours to put it together. You will have six weeks to submit your final project.

There will be 1 chat session to interact with the course trainer and ask him/her any questions about the course content. It will be on 16th February at 2 pm UK time through Teams.