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.”
About BG Titan Group
BGT is a global leader in infrastructure development,
specializing in large-scale projects that drive economic growth and
community development. With a presence in multiple regions, BGT is
committed to delivering innovative solutions that address critical
infrastructure needs.
About Veea Inc.
Veea® makes living and working at the edge simpler and more
secure. Veea has unified computing, communications, storage
services and security solutions through fully integrated, easy to
deploy and maintain edge computing products. VeeaHub smart
computing hub devices, of the full-stack Veea Edge Platform,
integrate multiprotocol communications with advanced networking for
applications running in Secured DockerTM containers on a networking
and computing mesh network with cloud management of devices,
applications and value-added services at the edge. It extends the
wide area optical fiber, cellular and satellite networks, with
managed Wi-Fi and IoT devices, sensors and machines, as a direct
extension of ISPs’ services on local area networks.
The multi-tenant distributed computing platform also enables
monitoring, command and control of resources, assets and the
endpoints with advanced networking for IoT applications on a wide
area-basis for both the consumer and the enterprise markets. Veea
Developer Portal and development tools provide for rapid
development of edge applications that are more responsive, maintain
data privacy, and run more securely at the edge, optionally, with
Edge AI. VeeaHub’s virtualized software environment provides a
secure service access edge device with Zero Trust Network Access
(ZTNA) for edge services.
Veea Edge platform offers a broad range of solutions
cost-effectively for underserved communities, enterprises and
service providers for B2B and B2B2C use cases and value-added
services. Veea works with and supplies to enterprise customers,
service providers, channel partners, system integrators, and
government agencies. Veea was formed in 2014 and is headquartered
in New York City. For more information, visit veea.com and follow
us on X and LinkedIn.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240711385594/en/
Media Contact:
Veea Inc. James Christopherson Sterling Communications for Veea
veea@sterlingpr.com