Among the growing number of recent satellite communications deals of relevance to Africa are two announcements from the southern part of the continent, where both Zimbabwe and South Africa are using satcoms to improve services.
In Zimbabwe satellite operator Eutelsat Communications and Zimbabwean internet service provider TelOne have signed a master service agreement to bring high-quality satellite broadband to Zimbabwe.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement with Eutelsat’s broadband division Konnect Africa, beginning in March 2021, TelOne says it will leverage the operational flexibility and power of the Eutelsat Konnect satellite to bring connectivity to households and businesses located in remote and rural locations across Zimbabwe.
Eutelsat Konnect is described as a new-generation high-throughput satellite offering unprecedented operational flexibility that has been gradually entering service since November 2020. With 75 Gbps of Ka-band capacity across a network of 65 spot beams, Eutelsat says the satellite provides quasi-complete coverage of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
In South Africa meanwhile, ABS, a global satellite operator, is partnering with Telemedia, a South African broadcasting and teleport service provider, to improve its service offerings to customers in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.
ABS announced earlier this week that the company will gain access to a full suite of telecom services provided by Telemedia at its Johannesburg teleport. Telemedia will provide teleport fibre connectivity, data centre hosting and satellite uplink capabilities.
Telemedia says the partnership enables the company to further expand its broadcast and satellite connectivity services in the MEA region.
