Eutelsat Communications and Facebook announced they have partnered to offer satellite Internet to under-serviced areas in Africa.
Under a multi-year agreement with Spacecom, the two companies will use the broadband payload of the future AMOS–6 satellite, and will build a dedicated system comprising satellite capacity, gateways, and terminals.
According to the terms of the agreement, the Ka-band capacity will be shared between Eutelsat and Facebook.
Scheduled for start of service in the second half of 2016, the Ka-band payload on the AMOS–6 geostationary satellite is configured with high-gain spot beams covering large parts of West, East, and Southern Africa.
The capacity is optimised for community and direct-to-user Internet access using affordable, off-the-shelf customer equipment.
Eutelsat and Facebook will each deploy Internet services designed to meet demand for connectivity from the many users in Africa beyond the range of fixed and mobile terrestrial networks.
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