GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd is testing a solar-powered cellular payphone in Nairobi, Kenya, to establish whether the idea is feasible way to provide telecommunication links to remote Kenyan villages not cabled to an exchange. The trial phone has been set up at the Kenyan Posts & Telecommunications Corp headquarters and is linked to the local exchange via a radio link. It is housed in a prototype booth and powered from two solar panels mounted on the mast structure, which also contains the yagi antenna for the radio transmission path. The phone is operated with phonecards. This is not GEC Plessey’s first use of solar power – it has installed solar-powered cellular transmission systems in Malawi, central Africa, to carry signals between exchanges. GEC Plessey has also won a UKP1.1m contract from the Kenyan Posts & Telecommunications to install a 565Mbps optical fibre system to link Nairobi with the national network.
