NuRAN Wireless to Test Starlink LEO Backhaul for Rural 4G Network in Nigeria
NuRAN Wireless will pilot Starlink LEO satellite connectivity as backhaul for a rural mobile site in Nigeria, testing whether higher-capacity satellite links can support its expansion from basic rural coverage towards 4G and other infrastructure services.
The trial will be conducted with Nigerian infrastructure partner Infratel and will use licensed Starlink service obtained through a third-party provider. NuRAN stressed that it has no direct commercial or contractual relationship with Starlink or SpaceX for the project. The pilot will assess network performance, reliability, integration and economics at a live NuRAN site.
NuRAN currently uses terrestrial technologies including microwave and TV white space for backhaul and plans to retain those options where practical. LEO satellite connectivity is instead being evaluated for locations where geography, line-of-sight constraints or deployment costs make terrestrial backhaul difficult. Greater backhaul capacity could support the company's migration towards higher-capacity 4G services, as well as local content caching, edge computing, AI applications and energy-management services at remote sites.
If successful, NuRAN intends to develop a repeatable deployment model for other African markets where suitable Starlink services and third-party arrangements are available. The company has more than 5,000 rural sites under contract and identified the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin and potentially Cameroon as markets where the approach could subsequently be applied.
The pilot illustrates an increasingly important role for LEO broadband beyond direct consumer access by backhauling terrestrial mobile networks in locations where fibre or microwave infrastructure is uneconomic. For rural mobile operators, the combination can separate the access and transport layers - conventional 4G serving local phones at the tower, with LEO satellites carrying aggregated traffic back to the wider network - potentially allowing higher-capacity cellular services to reach communities without dedicated terrestrial backhaul.