The entrepreneurs and tech experts that brought you Inveneo (they’ve used solar PCs to bring Internet connectivity to 3 million people in Africa, Asia, and Haiti) announce the launch of their new for-profit start-up, Volo Broadband, that is accelerating high-quality broadband Internet access in emerging markets like Uganda. Built based on years of field experience and designed in Silicon Valley, Volo offers a cloud-based automation platform for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to deploy fixed wireless broadband services using radically low-cost last-mile Wi-Fi networking technologies.
What is Volo?

The French telco Orange and Silicon Valley angels are funding the startup Volo that’s using small antennas to bring high-speed broadband to ISPs in Africa. In the near term, Volo will provide Uganda ISPs with a significantly less expensive way to deliver high-speed broadband Internet. Volo’s vendor-neutral platform addresses the true challenges and needs of ISPs in emerging economies making it easy and profitable for them to deliver and support affordable high-speed Internet access to the next billion users.

Just like any business in North America or Europe, businesses in Africa and other emerging markets want to be profitable, and provide the best products and services to their clients. While much of Africa has some Internet access, what’s missing is reliable, fast Internet connections so companies can use the high-bandwidth products that make them more competitive. Volo is enabling ISPs to use radically lower cost technologies to deliver high-speed fixed broadband, especially for small and medium enterprises, complementing mobile broadband for consumers. Higher bandwidth equals higher revenue potential.” – Volo investor and telecom entrepreneur Jim Forster

How is Volo deployed?

Volo’s first dish on a tower in downtown Gulu. This dish sends broadband access to a microwork center on the Gulu University campus.

Volo’s first customer will launch a new ISP in Northern Uganda to provide Silicon Valley quality, high-speed broadband service for businesses and organizations in and around Gulu, Uganda. As a result, these organizations and their users will have fast (1Mb or more) Internet access and the ability to access cloud-based business productivity tools (such as Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce, Quickbooks Online, and YouTube) at prices and speeds that mobile companies simply can’t offer.

With Volo, the future of wireless is here. Until recently, building infrastructure was expensive and time-consuming, making it hard for ISPs to scale and leaving businesses in emerging markets stuck with glacially slow connection speeds. Now, Volo is delivering the tools and expertise so that ISPs can deploy broadband services in weeks, maintain lower operational costs and scale more effectively.” – Volo co-founder and CEO Mark Summer

Volo plans to serve ISPs in 60 emerging markets that are on the precipice of massive growth in data usage, yet lack critical last-mile infrastructure outside the capital cities. Current investors and key advisors include industry leaders from the tech, energy and telecom sectors.

For more information please visit Volo’s superbly-designed website!