For many people, satellites are synonymous with television broadcasting. But they’re also gaining popularity as a means of delivering broadband. For emerging markets, like those in Africa, where terrestrial broadband solutions could take years to become ubiquitous, satellite is the only viable option.
Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, GM for Africa at satellite services company SES, says despite the growing number of submarine cables landing on African shores, the company is optimistic about the future of satellite technology on the continent.
“Most of the capacity is coming to the coastal areas,” he says. “It’s contributing to capacity and that creates new demands and service offerings, but because most companies try to provide a similar level of service across their customer base they then need another means of providing new services to customers that aren’t at the coast,” he says.
Guimba-Saidou says undersea capacity isn’t going to help the hundreds of millions of Africans living too far from access points to benefit. As connectivity becomes more ubiquitous, those living inland are going to want it, too, meaning “submarine cables and terrestrial fibre will fuel the demand for satellite rather than the other way around”.
Just as the number of sub-sea cables landing on African shores is increasing, so, too, is the number of satellites serving the continent.
But one of the challenges facing satellite technology is awareness. Guimba-Saidou says people are gradually coming to understand the benefits of satellite. “People have long assumed satellite is prohibitively expensive, but the total cost of ownership compared with terrestrial is surprising.”
He says sub-sea fibre can be affected by a wide range of challenges, including the cost of maintenance and unreliable electricity supply in emerging markets.
“There’s a perception that fibre is free after a once-off cost, but that simply isn’t the case,” he says, adding that all technologies need to be considered in delivering connectivity to Africa.
SES rival Intelsat launched the Intelsat 22 satellite at the beginning of April. The satellite will provide broadcast and data services to Africa, Asia and the Middle East, particularly targeted at those regions where terrestrial connectivity remains scarce.
Intelsat Africa MD Jon Osler says there more customers are purchasing “unique and customised” payloads on commercial satellites. This allows companies, or even governments, to provision dedicated satellite services without having to go as far as launching their own satellites.
“We’re seeing a lot of countries opting not to launch their own satellites but rather buying hosted payloads, particularly for military purposes,” says Osler. “It allows for economies of scale as countries can buy the space to meet their requirements.” Customers are buying space for everything from military communications to e-government applications.
“The majority of Intelsat 22’s capacity is slated for Africa,” says Osler. He says it will provide capacity that Africa needs and has been waiting for. Almost 80% of the satellite’s capacity was sold before launch. Osler says the bulk of this capacity is for data applications rather than broadcasting.
Osler says satellite technology is becoming important for connectivity, not only for areas that don’t have access to terrestrial data networks, but also to provide redundancy for terrestrial networks. “It used to be about what was best, terrestrial or satellite, but now it’s about both.”
Osler says this “convergence” is helping to push the cost of satellite bandwidth down. As a result, satellite technology is gaining popularity as a means of providing mobile connectivity. “We’re seeing huge growth, particularly in aeronautical mobility. When we talk mobility we mean commercial and military aeronautical, then maritime, from shipping to pleasure yachting, and finally things like train services that want to offer data services to passengers.” — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media