Intelsat and AfricaOnline to accelerate broadband in Sub-Saharan Africa
Article continues below
Under the agreement, Intelsat will provide satellite services via Intelsat 28 located at 33° East, and Gondwana will provide ground support and network management services from AfricaOnline’s facilities at Hartebeesthoek in South Africa.
Together, Intelsat and Gondwana will deliver high-quality, Ku-band broadband service on a virtual network operator (VNO) basis.
The VNO platform leverages Intelsat’s extensive service infrastructure and Gondwana’s network management expertise to facilitate easier deployment of Ku-band VSAT services.
The large upfront capital commitment otherwise required of regional VSAT operators for both infrastructure and minimum capacity obligations will be reduced, as will VSAT operators’ operational costs.
This is beneficial to VSAT operators, distributors and end-users alike and allows VSAT operators to focus on marketing, service provisioning/support and their customers, and not on network infrastructure. ■