Global telecommunication and satellite provider OneWeb is expanding its presence in Africa, as it has announced up to three partnership deals in weeks.
OneWeb, on Friday, reported that it had gotten into a five-year agreement with Q-KON Africa to distribute low-Earth orbit(LEO) satellite connectivity services in Africa.
Q-KON Africa will be in charge of providing OneWeb’s high-speed, low-latency satellite connectivity in key African countries to help schools, governments, businesses, and hospitals.
The Q-KON Africa’s CEO commented, “For us, OneWeb’s global lead and focus to deliver assured business grade, high-performance satellite services are the perfect option to expand our successful Twoobii Smart Satellite Services for Southern Africa. OneWeb’s technology innovations will deliver data speeds of 100 Mbps and low latency of 70 ms, which will enable us to further service the business, enterprise, and financial markets.”
Read also: Paratus Partners With OneWeb To Build Satellite Gateway In Angola
OneWeb And Airtel Africa Reached An Agreement
Airtel Africa is one of the leading mobile money and telecom services suppliers, with a presence in 14 nations. Airtel Africa offers a comprehensive array of telecommunications solutions to its more than 128.4 million customers, both domestically and internationally.
It was announced that One Web and Airtel Africa had signed a partnership agreement. The Partnership will focus on offering enterprise and civil government customers satellite communications services for a range of use cases, including connectivity in remote areas, hospitals, agricultural settings, educational institutions, and the energy and mining industries.
The objective is to provide high-speed, low-latency LEO connectivity services to the government and business sectors across the continent. OneWeb and Airtel Africa will also provide essential backhaul in underserved and unserved areas.
OneWeb’s VP of Mobility and AMEA, Ben Griffin, stated: “At OneWeb, we believe that connection everywhere changes everything so we are excited to be working with Airtel Africa to enhance OneWeb’s connectivity solutions across the African continent. This is a strategic fit, given our shared commitment to resiliency and excellence in communications services, and the partnership represents another exciting milestone on our path to delivering global connectivity.”
OneWeb and Airtel Africa publicly stated that they have started testing the service in Global telecommunications and satellite providers with plans to achieve full coverage across Airtel Africa’s footprint, which involves 14 countries in East, Central, and West Africa, by 2023.
The collaboration will focus on providing satellite communications services to enterprise and civilian government customers.
The announcements expand on OneWeb’s existing African initiatives, which include the deployment of Satellite Network Portals (SNP) in Angola, South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, and Mauritius.
Group Enterprise Director for Airtel Business at Airtel Africa, Luc Serviant, commented: “Internet penetration is rising across Africa and systems are even more connected as the digital transformation is driving growth amongst organizations. Through our partnership with OneWeb, we will support SMEs, entrepreneurs, corporates, and governments to do business everywhere in Africa, with low latency and highly resilient communication services. OneWeb and Airtel Africa will begin trialing service in South Africa in September, with plans to achieve full coverage in 2023 across Airtel Africa’s footprint, comprising 14 countries in East, Central, and West Africa.”
Angola set to launch its second communications satellite, Angosat-2
OneWeb’s Deal With Paratus Group In Angola
OneWeb announced earlier this month that it had managed to reach a multi-year agreement with Paratus Group in Angola to build a satellite gateway in the nation’s capital Luanda, which is scheduled to go online in the second half of 2023.
This gateway will allow the provision of high-speed, low-latency connectivity to organizations, higher education institutions, clinics, and schools in underserved areas, as well as low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services to several countries within the region. This is the first of several OneWeb gateways scheduled to open in Africa.
With the recent launch of the Paratus fibre connection to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DCR); the opening of the Paratus Group’s data centers in Namibia and Zambia; and coverage in all Angolan provinces, and the agreement, Paratus now has the materials to build an advanced network hub in Angola that allows for expansion beyond its borders.