South Africa’s plan to build and manage its own communications satellite through Sentech has two objectives: data sovereignty and building the country’s space expertise.
This is according to Rhys Morgan, regional vice-president of the EMEA region for Intelsat, commenting on SA’s satellite initiative, which is led by the state signal distributor − an entity within the communications ministry.
Morgan was speaking to ITWeb on the side-lines of the recent 2025 MWC Barcelona (formerly Mobile World Congress), detailing the emerging trends in the satellite space and the role of satellites in connecting the unconnected.
He explained that now, more than ever, there is a focus on control of data sovereignty as an asset. “That has been a theme within South Africa over a good number of years − government would like to have control over their services. They don’t want somebody from somewhere else having the ability to switch them off, for example.
“There’s a sovereignty angle and there’s also a capacity-building angle. There are quite positive ambitions to try and build more space expertise within South Africa. There are very good reasons behind it, but equally, it’s complicated and expensive.
“Our view would always be to work with somebody that understands the industry, so that you don’t design something that becomes a white elephant.
“I always look at the stadium that was built in Cape Town for the World Cup and think it’s a shame it doesn’t get the use it should. You don’t want the South African satellite to end up in a similar situation, where it’s a fantastic satellite but some of the more basic infrastructure around it, such as training and management, are not put together and then the asset goes to waste. I think the project comes with very good aims.”
Sentech has been vocal about the potential risks the national communications satellite may encounter, given the magnitude of the project, highlighting the issue of losing the satellite in space among these.
However, Morgan is confident this is “highly unlikely” because Sentech has a lot of experts within the organisation. “What would be more likely is that the commercial model isn’t necessarily properly developed, and then the asset isn’t used to do as much as it could do.
“There are a lot of unconnected people in South Africa and an asset like that could be extremely helpful.”
Satellite value-add
As satellite technology evolves, plans for a South African-based satellite, with Sentech at the helm, have been touted for several years.
Other key role-players that have been identified for the satellite project include the South African National Space Agency, working in tandem with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies and the Department of Science and Innovation.
The idea, said former communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni in 2022, aims to enhance broadband connectivity reach.
South Africa’s broadband connectivity ambitions through satellite were also alluded to by another former communications minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.
During the AfricaCom 2017 conference, Ndabeni-Abrahams said when considering long-term investment plans for SA's broadband rollout, satellite technology is a possibility to aid where terrestrial networks are unable to provide connectivity.
In Parliament, the portfolio committee on communications has also been advocating for the approval of the national satellite strategy, with a particular focus on communication satellites, according to committee chairperson Khusela Sangoni-Diko.
Connecting the unconnected
According to mobile industry body the GSM Association, 3.1 billion people are covered by mobile networks but are not using mobile internet.
As a result, satellite has increasingly found itself among the technologies identified to help address digital dividend challenges, allowing users to access communication services.
There are two parallel paths, according to Morgan. “Data is where the operators are making the money, because voices almost disappear, with WhatsApp calls, etc.
“2G and 3G are still big in many countries, but the big revenue generation is in the urban centres and driving more data consumption. What we’re seeing, and this is something we welcome, is that regulators are being more assertive about connecting the unconnected. They are saying, ‘major MNO, we gave you a licence, right? We expect you to go connect those population centres.’ Ten years ago, the dialogue was slightly different and there wasn’t that pressure.
“Now there is that pressure from the regulators, so there’s more desire to do it. I think often the big telcos struggle with the right economic model.”
As to whether there would be a return on investment for the mobile operators should they diversify with satellite, Morgan said: “Don’t go and invest in expensive infrastructure, don’t try and develop a satellite technical group – let us do it.
“Let us provide what we’d call satellite-as-a service, and it’s an OPEX model. Therefore, we take away the capital issues, take away some of the management of a piece of infrastructure that’s not core to your business, helping with the CAPEX option.
“We know that 5G investment, for example, in certain countries, has been expensive. We know the upgrade from 2G to 3G to 4G has been expensive. It’s coming up with different business models and different operating models to help reflect that and to make it easy. One of the things the LEO [low Earth orbit satellite] operators are changing is that people’s expectations are now that satellite should be easy. We’re...trying to make satellite very simple, both economically and from an operational perspective.”
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