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Bio-oiling the wheels of Nigerian mobile nets

Ericsson has entered into a deal with MTN, with funding from the GSM Association, to supply electricity for cell base stations using biodiesel-powered generators.

While currently only a pilot project, the idea is to establish the viability of biodiesel for network rollouts across the developing world.

Biodiesel works much like conventional diesel, and often in unmodified engines, but is supposed to be carbon-neutral as the carbon released when it is burnt is absorbed by the next crop.

The greenness of large-scale use of biofuels is still open to question, but as well as deploying base stations, Ericsson and MTN will work with the local population to create crops and processing to manufacture the fuel locally - and that's got to help the environment if nothing else does.

The first base station will be in Lagos, with expansion into eastern and south western Nigeria to quickly follow. We'll be watching the success of the project with interest, but for the moment it's just nice to be able to report something about Nigeria without mentioning online fraud at all.

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