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Airtel Africa Becomes OneWeb’s Latest Distribution Partner

By Mark Holmes | November 9, 2022

Photo by OneWeb

OneWeb’s Africa ambitions were boosted Wednesday by the news of a new distribution agreement as it looks to bring its satellite Internet connectivity services across Africa. It has appointed Airtel Africa to help sell its services in the region. The deal was announced Nov. 8.

The partnership will focus on delivering satellite communications services to enterprise and civil government customers for a wide range of use cases, including for connectivity in rural areas, agriculture, hospitals, hotels, schools and in the energy and mining sectors. OneWeb and Airtel Africa will also provide critical backhaul in unserved and underserved regions.

OneWeb has been keen to make progress in Africa. It has already done a series of installations of Satellite Network Portals (SNP) in Angola, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Mauritius. With only four more launches to go, OneWeb also remains on track to activate its coverage solutions in Africa, and elsewhere around the world, in 2023.

“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,” Luc Serviant, Group Enterprise Director, Airtel Business at Airtel Africa said in a statement.