ITU’s “Connect Africa” Effort Doubles

Furthering their support of the International Telecommunication Union’s ‘Connect Africa’ initiative, the global satellite communications sector will double the number of Earth station terminals operating in the region. By 2012 more than 1 billion Africans located in under-served rural, suburban, and urban areas throughout the Continent will receive service. As a result, more than 20 satellites will be brought into service to connect Africa during the next five years.

Assisting with this facilitation, complimentary capacity building will be delivered to governments in Africa by the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), the non-profit association of the international satellite industry. This will provide regulators and ministry stakeholders with access to an online interactive course entitled ‘A Government Guide to Satellite Communications’. Satellite operators that plan to bring new satellite capacity into service for Africa during the next five years include ABS, Arabsat, Eutelsat, Gascom, Intelsat, Measat, NigComSat, Nilesat, Rascom, SES Astra, SES New Skies, Telesat, and Yahsat.

Satellite television and radio services now reach millions of Africans. Mobile satellite services are being deployed not only for commercial enterprises but also for rural telephony and data services in the most remote areas of Africa. Likewise, Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs) are now deployed in every African nation, where they not only support vital enterprises such as banking, mining, and oil and gas, but are also used to support national or regional distance learning, telemedicine, emergency management, rural communications, cyber cafés, ISPs, Internet access, and a host of e-government applications.

The announcement was made at ITU Telecom Africa and is a major effort by the private sector to help achieve ICT broadband connectivity targets by 2012 in Africa in preparation for reaching the broader Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. African governments are being invited to enable the satellite industry’s efforts by implementing strategic market liberalization, harmonizing satellite regulatory frameworks, and maintaining access to satellite spectrum, including the C, Ku, Ka, L, S, and other bands—Cairo, Egypt