Intelsat signs up M-Web, UUNet

By Rodney Weidemann for Intelsat
Johannesburg, 20 Feb 2004

Intelsat says it has signed broadband service provider agreements with African Internet service providers (ISPs), M-Web Africa and UUNet SA.

The satellite communications company used the SatCom Africa 2004 satellite technology conference, held at Sandton Convention Centre this week, to announce the deals.

According to Flavien Bachabi, Intelsat`s regional VP for Africa and the Middle East, the agreements will see the organisation providing both C and Ku band satellite services over Africa, thanks to a hybrid infrastructure that includes satellite, fibre and terrestrial infrastructure.

"Intelsat will enable the ISPs to take broadband services - such as 'always on Internet` with up times of around 99.997% - to anywhere in Africa, although I believe M-Web Africa will be focusing on Nigeria initially," he says.

"This agreement with M-Web Africa is currently the largest of its kind that we have signed for Africa."

Bachabi says Intelsat sees Africa as one of the fastest growing markets, and satellite could offer answers to many of the continent`s more remote and poor areas.

"Africa`s poor quality of networks and its lack of meaningful infrastructure means that wireless solutions are the likely answer for the continent. I believe that satellite will help Africa leapfrog in terms of technology, avoiding all the costly problems associated with landlines," says Bachabi.

"Satellites are getting more powerful, meaning that the ground infrastructure, such as base stations, is getting cheaper. Satellites can also be deployed rapidly and do not suffer from the security risks that landlines do, such as the potential theft of copper cables."

He says there is a willingness from Intelsat to offer satellite services in SA as well, but that current regulations do not allow this.

"However, we have been providing the backbone for Telkom`s satellite services for years, and also have enabling contracts with MTN and Vodacom across Africa, as well as offering distribution capacity to Sentech and MultiChoice in SA."

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