Broadband Footprint Increasing
As far as broadband over satellite services are concerned, Africa is witnessing a steady increase in activity. “In the last years, we have seen a significant increase in demand for broadband connectivity,” says Schwartz. “In particular, broadband over satellite has become more affordable as a result of the introduction of hub-based VSAT services. The costs of terminals has decreased and more efficient modulation and coding has increased bandwidth efficiency.”
Hub-based services allow local service providers to remotely manage their own customer base on shared facilities, lowering startup and operational costs. This has resulted in a meaningful increase of local service providers. “As satellite broadband has become more affordable, we have seen an increase in demand from smaller companies and internet cafes,” says Schwartz. “Churn is not a major concern because we expect that terrestrial technologies, such as wireless broadband, will serve as a last mile solution in combination with satellite connectivity.”
Broadband services are growing throughout Africa, and satellite-enabled services are in the forefront, says Bachabi. Intelsat capacity, which delivers more than 2 gigabits per second of traffic to Africa, supports IP distance learning and e-health initiatives and facilitates access to Internet connectivity for many urban and rural centers.
But pricing continues to be an issue for many businesses and consumers alike, says Southwood. “More than half the countries of Africa now have some form of broadband offer. The majority of these offers have been using DSL over the telco incumbent’s network,” he says. “This growth has spurred a number of satellite broadband offers including things like [Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network] and iWay. These services are now providing higher levels of connectivity for remote areas but connectivity prices remain, in relative terms, high.”
Domestic Satellite Taking Shape
As the African satellite market prepares to enter another stage, Nigeria is among the first countries working to increase options across the continent by developing its own satellite. In 2006, the Export and Import Bank of China agreed to provide $200 million to fund Nigeria’s first communications satellite project. The deal involves the construction and launch of Nigcomsat-1, which is based on China’s new DFH-4 platform. In 2005, when this joint project started to take shape, Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission told the Chinese media that Nigerian investments in RASCOM were substantial and that this new satellite would not only boost satellite bandwidth in Nigeria but throughout all of Africa. This satellite will carry four C-band, 18 Ku-band, four Ka-band and two L-band transponders.
Nigcomsat-1 had been scheduled to be launched in early 2007 by a Chinese Long March 3 B rocket. However, the October launch failure that destroyed the Sinosat-2 satellite raises questions about the timetable. Killimbe indicates that Nigeria is proceeding with the launch as planned. “To me, Nigeria’s participation is a testimony of the existence of a huge unsatisfied market demand in Africa as a continent at the regional level as well as at country level,” he says. “RASCOM considers all existing and future infrastructure solutions as playing a complementary role in creating a total solution for African needs. Africa, just like Europe, Asia and China, needs huge capacities in order to stimulate traffic volumes and create affordability level as well as to become active participants in the information society.”
Africa is eager to see more satellite dishes, and the best is yet to come for the satellite sector as a whole.
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