Thought Leadership by Teresa Huysamen, Wireless BU Executive, Duxbury Networking
For much of Africa, the promise of ubiquitous broadband remains constrained by economics and terrain. Fibre is expensive and slow to deploy outside dense urban centres. Rights-of-way, long backhaul distances and limited budget often leave rural communities and enterprises on the edge, and multi-site operations dependent on satellite or mobile wireless backhaul to stay connected. In this environment, fixed wireless broadband becomes a strategic necessity.
Yet connectivity alone is only part of the story. Traditional low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite and cellular (4G/5G) connections typically rely on shared address spaces using carrier-grade network address translation (CGNAT). That means remote sites often do not receive dedicated public IP addresses, which complicates VPN access, remote management, direct service hosting, and enterprise-class security configurations. These are all critical capabilities for modern businesses and institutions. This was a longstanding architectural constraint, particularly for networks that needed predictable, reachable endpoints.
Solving the problem
A recent innovation from Cambium Networks’ Network Service Edge (NSE) platform addresses this challenge. It enables service providers, managed service providers (MSPs), internet service providers (ISPs), and wireless internet service providers (WISPs) to assign static public IPv4 addresses over encrypted WireGuard tunnels to network edge devices, even when those sites are connected via LEO satellite or cellular WAN links.
Here is how it works in practice.
A provider hosts an NSE hub in a data centre with a pool of public IPv4 addresses. At each remote location (whether a rural clinic, mine site, agricultural hub, or branch office), an edge NSE appliance establishes a secure WireGuard VPN tunnel back to that hub. Through this encrypted tunnel, the edge device receives a dedicated static public IP address, making it directly reachable from anywhere on the internet without the limitations of CGNAT.
This architecture delivers several significant outcomes for African broadband deployments:
- Stable public identity over wireless backhaul: Remote offices, retail sites, healthcare facilities, and branch networks gain predictable public IPs over LEO satellite and LTE/5G links. That facilitates secure remote access, cloud integration, high-quality VoIP, direct hosting and enterprise VPN termination without awkward workarounds.
- Provider-owned routing and control: Because the NSE can be deployed within the provider’s infrastructure rather than relying on vendor-hosted cloud routing, carriers and MSPs retain complete control over traffic paths and policy enforcement. This is essential for compliance, performance SLAs and operational visibility.
- Integrated SD-WAN and edge security: The NSE model includes not just static IP assignment but also SD-WAN intelligence, next-generation firewalling, intrusion prevention and quality-of-service features at the edge. That combination moves satellite and cellular links from being “best-effort” last resorts to predictable, manageable connectivity options.
- Enablement of differentiated service tiers: For rural ISPs and emerging WISP operators, this capability enables premium “static IP broadband” offerings with built-in enterprise characteristics, helping differentiate services and build higher-value revenue streams.
Extending across Africa
In South Africa and broader Africa, hybrid network models that combine fibre, fixed wireless, satellite and cellular backhaul are increasingly common. Static IP addressing over these links transforms them from tactical stopgaps to architectural building blocks. For example, rural enterprises dependent on satellite may now integrate cloud-hosted applications or centralised management systems, just as urban offices do. Similarly, educational and healthcare networks can maintain consistent remote monitoring and support without complex NAT traversal workarounds.
This matters not just for connectivity but for network capability and security. Public IP reachability simplifies zero-trust network architecture, supports resilient disaster recovery strategies, and enables unified network operations for multi-site organisations. As fixed wireless broadband, including CBRS, unlicensed 6 GHz, and mmWave links, continues to expand across the continent, the ability to assign and manage stable public addressing over diverse backhaul options will become a baseline expectation, not a niche luxury.
For African service providers, enterprise integrators, and MSPs, this capability is a step toward broadband that is not just fast but also operationally meaningful and manageable. It empowers networks to deliver consistent security, predictable performance and easier integration with cloud and edge services. Over time, this type of innovation will help bridge the digital divide by making enterprise-grade connectivity accessible beyond metro footprints.
Connectivity should not just connect but also enable. By removing barriers to public IP addressability over hybrid wireless networks, the industry is moving toward that reality, turning the promise of ubiquitous broadband into a practical, deployable outcome for communities and businesses across Africa.
