An Economic Feasibility Model for Sustainable 5G Networks in Rural Dwellings of South Africa

Hloniphani Maluleke (), Antoine Bagula, Olasupo Ajayi () and Luca Chiaraviglio
Additional contact information
Hloniphani Maluleke: Department of Computer Science, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Antoine Bagula: Department of Computer Science, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Olasupo Ajayi: Department of Computer Science, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Luca Chiaraviglio: Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-24

Abstract: Numerous factors have shown Internet-based technology to be a key enabler in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDG), as well as narrowing the divide between the global north and south. For instance, smart farming, remote/online learning, and smart grids can be used to, respectively, address SDGs 1 and 2 (ending poverty and hunger), 3 (quality education), and 7 and 9 (energy and infrastructure development). Though such Internet-based solutions are commonplace in the global north, they are missing or sparsely available in global south countries. This is due to several factors including underdevelopment, which dissuades service providers from investing heavily in infrastructure for providing capable Internet solutions such as 5G networks in these regions. This paper presents a study conducted to evaluate the feasibility of deploying 5G networks in the rural dwellings of South Africa at affordable rates, which would then serve as a pre-cursor for deploying solutions to improve lives and achieve the SDGs. The study evaluates the economic viability of a hybrid network model which combines terrestrial and aerial networks to provide 5G coverage in rural areas. The feasibility study reveals that such a network can be engineered at low monthly subscription fees to the end users and yield good returns to the service providers in rural areas; however, for large but sparsely populated suburban locations, the traditional terrestrial network with base stations is more suitable.

Keywords: 5G; economic feasibility; internal rate of return (IRR); sustainable development; unmanned aerial drones (UAV) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12153/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12153/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12153-:d:925229

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().