The importance of satellites in African connectivity quest

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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Thomas Makore, MD of Spescom Telecommunications recently said that for years Africa has been known as the “Dark Continent”. The continent has historically struggled and continues to struggle with poor or non-existent communication infrastructure.

Due to many years of infighting and conflict, fixed-line copper cable infrastructures have been neglected in many African countries, and left to fall into disrepair. In other countries development has been slow due to governmental problems, lack of funding and other reasons. Even in countries like South Africa, where the infrastructure has been well developed and maintained, theft of copper lines has caused a marked decline in available service.

Businesses, no matter their size, have been unable to rely on a stable and affordable communications infrastructure. As the internet and the ability to be interconnected has become a vital requirement of modern business, investment into African countries has been hampered, and those already involved in enterprises in Africa tend to find the cost of doing business uncompetitive.

“Satellite technology, or VSAT, may be the answer to the provision of voice and data services across Africa. Although it is currently more expensive than terrestrial wireless access, it is easier to deploy over widespread and remote areas, with lower population densities. As connections are established between users via satellites that are in orbit, communications can be quickly established once satellite capacity is in place. Only basic infrastructure such as a power supply for the hub and for the remote terminals at customer premises is required, and VSAT infrastructure is far cheaper to maintain than other technologies,” said Makore.

VSAT technology has been in use for more than 20 years, and is a stable and proven means of establishing communications. Added to this are a number of geostationary satellites that currently serve the continent and will soon be extended. Even in the South African context VSATs are serving businesses in rural areas, many ATMs rely on VSAT and banks in Africa could not deliver customer services if it wasn’t for satellite connectivity.

Take Nigeria as an example. It is now the largest telecoms market in Africa, but still represents a huge opportunity for mobile operators, with more growth envisaged. Etisalat, which has 74-million subscribers across 18 countries in Africa, Middle East and Asia, is expanding its footprint in Nigeria through Gateway Communications. Gateway Communications has been awarded a contract to provide Etisalat with cellular backhaul for its Nigerian mobile network. With more than 47 transponders of capacity, this company carries more satellite cellular backhaul in Africa than any other operator.

Geostationary satellites

Intelsat and Hughes Network Systems are currently the largest geostationary satellite operators although we will soon see a new African satellite as part of a venture between Intelsat and Convergence Partners.

Intelsat has an impressive African record; the company has been serving Africa since 1965. Today the company dominates the delivery of sports coverage. Since the 1968 Olympics, Intelsat has beamed images and commentary to a global audience. For the 2010 World Cup Soccer Intelsat will deliver coverage of both standard as well as high definition TV (HDTV) world-wide.

Another interesting development comes from Hughes. The company recently introduced Spaceway 3, a next-generation satellite system whose unique capabilities enables high-speed data networking. Operating in globally-assigned Ka-band spectrum, Spaceway 3 employs high-performance, onboard digital processing, packet switching, and spot-beam technology to offer direct site-to-site connectivity at rates of from 512 kbps up to 16 Mbps. It combines the traditional advantages of satellite, namely ubiquitous reach and efficient broadcast/multicast, with high data rates and mesh connectivity

New Dawn

New Dawn is a joint initiative between Intelsat and Convergence Partners. The joint venture is to build and launch a new satellite that will service the African continent’s demand for communication infrastructure and to address current capacity constraints. The satellite is expected to cost $250-million. The financing model calls for African institutions to contribute 90% of the total financing required. The satellite is likely to be known as Intelsat New Dawn and have a life expectancy of 15 years. It is planned to be placed in a 33° west orbit. New Dawn is expected to be launched towards the end of this year and will become operational by the first quarter, 2010.

Satellite connectivity discussion

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