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Network Infrastructure Magazine | Monday, July 26, 2021
Telecom companies can now offer high-speed 4G services in rural and remote locations, thereby boosting their market reach in the easternmost African region.
FREMONT, CA: Communities across Africa's easternmost peninsula can access 4G services on their mobile phones due to a three-year partnership agreement signed by iSAT Africa, a provider of fixed satellite solutions and professional services, and SES, the market leader in global content connectivity solutions. The two businesses declare that the new service will be accessible via SES's O3b medium earth orbit (MEO) constellation before migrating and expanding to SES's next-generation MEO constellation, O3b mPOWER, in 2022.
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iSAT Africa is well-known in the region for embracing innovative mobile internet access solutions for rural populations in Africa that are currently unconnected. iSAT Africa will rapidly scale its network to meet anticipated extensive connectivity demands thanks to SES's highly flexible and scalable O3b mPOWER system, which can deliver low-latency high-speed connectivity services ranging from tens of megabits to multiple gigabits per second to a single site. The fiber-like network will enable iSAT Africa to support the deployment of 4G services by local mobile operators, therefore closing the digital divide. iSAT Africa is one of the first African enterprises to subscribe to O3b mPOWER.
According to the GSMA 2020 study, mobile coverage has rapidly increased in Sub-Saharan Africa; 3G coverage increased to 75 percent from 63 percent in 2017, while 4G coverage nearly doubled to about 50 percent. However, Sub-Saharan Africa continues to have the world's largest coverage gap, with 67 percent of the world's population not served by mobile broadband. This is because deploying 4G networks in sparsely inhabited rural and distant locations remains economically challenging. With telcos and internet service providers increasingly looking for creative, cost-effective, yet dependable connectivity options, SES's MEO satellite-based MEF-certified service, which enables seamless interconnection with any network, is a great fit.
“At iSAT Africa, we don’t just believe in delivering connectivity to everyone across Africa. Its also about delivering differentiated, cost-effective and reliable services that will enable various businesses to expand. This agreement represents a leap towards achieving that mission with iSAT Africa being able to deliver 4G services to communities and businesses located in underserved areas. As long-term partners of SES, we are confident this innovative solution will enable us to offer differentiated connectivity services to our telco customers,” says Rakesh Kukreja, Founder and Managing Director at iSAT Africa.
John-Paul Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks, says, “We will be able to revolutionize the connectivity capabilities of mobile operators across Africa together through this agreement with iSAT Africa. The O3b and O3b mPOWER systems will easily enable the deployment of 4G services and high-performance networks for cloud applications regardless of where they are across the region. The enhanced flexibility and scalability of O3b mPOWER will truly connect Africans living in underserved areas in the most economically viable manner.”
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