{"id":647650,"date":"2026-05-18T14:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=647650"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:15:22","slug":"telecom-giant-using-south-african-infrastructure-to-deliver-satellite-services-across-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/telecoms\/647650-telecom-giant-using-south-african-infrastructure-to-deliver-satellite-services-across-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Telecom giant using South African infrastructure to deliver satellite services across Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Namibian telecommunications firm Paratus Group built its largest satellite teleport facility in South Africa to deliver connectivity across the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group recently struck a partnership with American low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet provider Starlink, becoming its authorised pan-African reseller for businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 2003, the group has grown into one of the continent\u2019s largest telecommunications infrastructure businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the company provides services in more than 16 African countries. It has offices in the US, the UK and Europe, as well as five data centres in three African nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of May 2026, Paratus is distributing Starlink\u2019s services in Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, eSwatini, Lesotho and Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s multimillion-rand satellite teleport station in Doornkloof, Pretoria, is the linchpin of its satellite Internet services operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paratus Group announced the construction of the facility in March 2023 and said it would be completed in August 2023. It was built by Paratus South Africa, its local arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Paratus said that the facility was the group\u2019s largest satellite infrastructure project across its markets, capable of hosting equipment from providers and customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kallie Carlsen, managing director of Paratus South Africa, said the project was important for South Africa and the group\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe development of the teleport aligns closely with the group\u2019s overall vision to transform Africa through exceptional infrastructure and service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key features of the project included dual-redundant backup systems across all network infrastructure to maintain service uptime through generators and backhaul-hosted environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teleport also enabled connectivity to and from multiple countries via terrestrial and subsea fibre routes, as well as two fibre routes to two independent data centres in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSatellite is the key primary infrastructure and connectivity for many businesses in South Africa that rely on crucial transactional data to remain on,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paratus Group CEO Schalk Erasmus said the teleport\u2019s construction was a major investment by the group to make its offerings in the region \u201cunequalled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starlink satellite services for emergency service providers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Render of the Paratus satellite teleport station in Doornkloof, Pretoria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In April, the company launched Paratus Essential Access, offering to deliver Starlink satellite connectivity to communities and emergency service providers across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEssential services help communities thrive and flourish, but without connectivity, they cannot operate,\u201d it said in its announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnsuring that critical institutions that operate in remote and underserved areas remain vital, the Paratus Essential Access service provides reliable, high-speed, low-latency connectivity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that Paratus Essential Service was backed by the group\u2019s in-country teams to ensure certified installation and integration with other network services as required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emergency service providers were also offered rapid connection and deployment of services, \u201ceven in the most challenging environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connectivity enabled a wide range of applications, from emergency response coordination and secure communications to telemedicine and digital health monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said it would roll out the service to more territories across Africa in the coming months. The product is not available in South Africa because Starlink is not licensed to operate in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith Paratus Essential Access, we are prioritising the organisations and communities people rely on most,\u201d said Erasmus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis ensures that essential services in remote areas stay connected where traditional infrastructure cannot reach, allowing them to continue providing vital support to the communities they serve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paratus is poised to expand its satellite Internet offerings to more of its African markets, hinged on its South African infrastructure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":647657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[105256,917,3746,94673,105255,78426,79520,105254,11375,48987],"class_list":["post-647650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecoms","tag-barney-harmse","tag-internet-2","tag-kallie-carlsen","tag-leo","tag-low-earth-orbit","tag-paratus","tag-paratus-group","tag-schalk-erasmus","tag-spacex","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647650"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":648652,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647650\/revisions\/648652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}