Africa

Monday 14 January in Dakar, Mary Teuw Niane, Senegal’s Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and Jean-Pascal Le Franc, CNES’s Director of Programming, International and Quality, signed an agreement to step up cooperation between France and Senegal in space.

How far have we come in achieving the UN's sustainable development goals that we are committed to nationally and internationally? Yes, it can be difficult to make a global assessment of poverty and poor economic conditions, but with an eye in the sky, researchers are able to give us a very good hint of the living conditions of populations in the world's poor countries.

Ethiopia's state-owned telecommunications provider, Ethio Telecom, is considering acquiring a communications satellite in order to provide connectivity to rural Ethiopia as well as to economic sectors in the northeast African country that will benefit from telecommunications infrastructure, such as agriculture and mining, according to a news story published in Ethiopian news outlet The Reporter.

Konnect Africa, an initiative of the satellite operator Eutelsat dedicated to satellite broadband on the African continent, announced on 28 November 2018 the launch of its Internet access offers throughout the Congolese territory.

MzansiSat, a New Space satellite broadband company located in Stellenbosch, South Africa, is looking to launch and operate its own Geostationary orbit communications satellite, to be called MzansiSat-1, by 2022 in order to provide low-cost satellite broadband Internet across Africa in what its Chief Operating Officer, Victor Stephanopoli, calls a "patchy" telecommunications sector on the continent.

Hughes Network Systems LLC, a leading company in broadband satellite networks and services, announced on 12 November 2018 that three African telecom companies have selected the Hughes JUPITER™ System to power delivery of satellite broadband services for their customers. Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, Satcom Networks Africa Limited (SatCoNet), and a leading East African telecommunications company each chose the JUPITER System based on its high performance, operational efficiency, and better customer experience.

Arabsat, one of the world’s leading satellite operators, and Forsway Scandinavia AB, a global specialist in providing innovative satellite broadband solutions, have announced the deployment of affordable satellite broadband services across Africa under the new Arabsat Broadband package.

A far-reaching in-depth study, led by Nielsen, of television reception throughout Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, has positioned Eutelsat as satellite market leader within these countries. The face-to-face interviews were conducted with 3,000 households in Nigeria, 2,000 in Cameroun and 2,000 in Ivory Coast, representative of the population of the geographical area surveyed.

Intelsat S.A., operator of the world’s first Globalized Network and leader in integrated satellite solutions, has announced that Vodacom Mozambique has signed an agreement for a satellite solution that will provide 3G services that uniquely satisfy the growing data demand generated by the tourism sector.

Newtec, the Belgian specialist company in the design, development and manufacture of equipment for satellite communications, announced on 12 November 2018 its technology will be used by leading satellite operator NIGCOMSAT as it expands its enterprise, government, and consumer Ka-band broadband services in Nigeria.