How to bring mobile coverage to the remotest parts of the world

Ten percent of the world’s population lives in places without mobile coverage. Endaga, a tiny startup that just raised $1.2 million in funding, may have another way.

As part of his doctoral work at Berkeley, Endage founder Kurtis Heimerl built a box that can be installed pretty much anywhere and provide cellular coverage over a 10 km (6.2 mile) radius. The box uses regular radio spectrum to connect to mobile phones in its area, converting it to voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in order to connect to the rest of the world. The clever bit is that Endaga doesn’t run the service. Instead of attempting to make money from cellphone services, Endaga leaves the running of the network to locals, who then take on the responsibility of installing it, attaching it to a power source, and finding an Internet connection.