By : Amir Taha

BG Titan Group (“BGT”), a leader in infrastructure development projects, and Veea Inc. (“VEEA”), a first-to-market pioneer in hyperconverged multiaccess networks, incorporating and edge-to-cloud computing and Edge AI, today announced a strategic partnership aimed at driving broadband inclusion and community development across North African countries.

The parties entered into a Cooperation Agreement earlier this year in support of their joint market development and network roll-out activities that were initiated in 2023 in other regions. This collaboration extends the proven strengths of both companies to address the critical need for reliable Internet access in remote and underserved areas of North Africa through local and regional service providers offering value-added services with a focus on addressing food security challenges in the region.

Illuminating the Path to Digital Inclusion

In an era where Internet access is the key to the advancement of those who are disadvantaged socially and economically, BGT and Veea are committed to bringing digital equity to North Africa, while offering a plethora of solutions to the underserved communities in the region. This partnership will focus on implementing Veea's virtual Trusted Broadband Access (vTBA) platform, designed to provide cost-effective, secure, high-quality Internet access and other edge solutions to communities that have traditionally been left behind in the digital revolution.

Veea Edge Platform can extend AI technologies, based on Large Language Models (LLMs) such as OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Bard, Meta Llama and others, that are rapidly pervading the educational, healthcare and many other sectors in the urban centers, to the underserved communities cost effectively, which hold even a greater promise for enhancing the quality of distance learning and training, telehealth, virtual agents for agricultural and first responders use cases, and many others. Moreover, Edge AI deployed locally in the rural areas brings intelligence to VeeaHub’s Internet of Things (IoT) applications delivered through VeeaHub’s embedded IoT gateway, which has a vast array of use cases such as precision agriculture, water and air quality management, optimization of energy consumption, public safety, and environmental monitoring.

“Our collaboration goes beyond mere infrastructure deployment,” said Aymen Boughanmi, CEO of BGT. “Each VeeaHub we install is a catalyst for change, a beacon of opportunity in areas long overlooked by technological progress.”

Empowering Communities with Connectivity

1. Broadband Equity and Inclusion: The partnership aims to drive broadband equity by providing affordable and accessible Internet service to diverse populations, particularly in rural and underserved areas, ensuring that all communities have the opportunity to participate in the digital economy. Local ISPs can extend their coverage areas through deployment of Veea Edge Platform products, which offer seamless and cost-effective connectivity solutions over cellular-like managed Wi-Fi. This will enable ISPs to extend their services without the heavy investment typically required for traditional cellular infrastructure, while provisioning edge-managed value-added services for a range of applications such as:

•      Remote access to education, healthcare, and training

•      Regenerative precision agriculture and smart farming

•      Streaming or cached content for entertainment and gaming

•      Industrial and enterprise use cases of IoT

2. Enhancing Educational Connectivity: Recognizing the transformative power of education, the partnership will prioritize Internet connecting for educational institutions in remote areas transforming rural schools into digital learning hubs. Schools will receive quality, reliable Internet access — enabling students and teachers to utilize online learning resources real-time or through cached educational content on VeeaHub units locally, while connecting with the educational centers at all levels of education in urban centers. Distance learning is made more effective with the application of LLMs by adapting the content to the current cognitive needs of students individually in the smaller communities.

3. Telehealth and Telemedicine Services: Veea and BGT have been collaborating on the development of telehealth and telemedicine services for several regions. The use of technology in healthcare delivery can assist healthcare systems, organizations, and providers in expanding access to and improving the quality, safety, and effectiveness of rural healthcare. Telehealth can reduce challenges patients encounter, such as transportation issues related to traveling for specialty care. In rural areas, where access to specialists is limited, LLM-based AI can act as a virtual consultant, aiding local healthcare professionals in making more accurate and timely decisions. Machine learning algorithms based on the data collected and processed locally can also assist in early detection of diseases, pandemics and community health assessments related to environmental pollutants by analyzing patterns in patient data, enabling proactive and preventive interventions.

4. Addressing Food Safety and Security Challenges: With the world’s population outpacing its food production, food security has become a matter of national security for many countries, especially in North African countries due to extreme weather events like heat waves, floods, wildfires and severe storms. It is also expected that extreme hydrological variability will disproportionately impact North Africa, putting further stress on limited water resources. Veea Edge Platform uniquely offers regional water distribution and irrigation management capabilities along with precision agriculture solutions that can substantially increase the yield of various crops by enabling data-driven farming with data from sensors, soil probes, drone and satellite imagery, and micro weather stations along with deep learning and AI at the edge.

5. Environmental Monitoring and Disaster Response: In a region prone to extreme weather events, data processed from various sensors in VeeaHub’s edge applications can monitor air quality, predict sandstorms, and alert communities to impending natural disasters. In such scenarios, Veea Edge Platform offers a local communication network for coordinating emergency responses and saving lives while offering the network coverage and the edge applications for monitoring, reporting and verification of regional sustainability goals.

This partnership between BGT and Veea is more than a business venture – it is clarion call for change, a testament to the transformative power of technology when guided by compassion and insight. The partnership intends to facilitate AI-driven local digital marketplaces with a unique blockchain for secure financial transactions with access to microloans and digital banking services. Small businesses in rural areas will be able to reach global markets, artisans can showcase their work internationally, and entrepreneurs can access resources previously out of reach. The Parties are engaged in further partnering discussions with ISPs, a number of regional and international agencies, sovereign funds, and foundations on a range of projects in North Africa.

“Veea Edge Platform is the Swiss Army knife of digital transformation,” explains Allen Salmasi, CEO of Veea. “It's not just about providing internet access. We deploy a mesh network of VeeaHub smart computing devices that bring the power of edge computing with edge applications, IoT integration, and AI directly to unserved communities that have been unable to benefit from the rapid technological advancements realized by those with broadband access.”

“This collaboration sets a new standard for the infrastructure development of a profitable realization of social and public safety services, business productivity and regional sustainability objectives,” stated Aymen Boughanmi. “The rapid technological advancements, supported by a wealth of AI models at the edge, will bridge dreams and aspirations of those living in unserved and underserved communities to an era of unprecedented opportunity and growth.”