International service provider Orange, which has a presence in 18 African countries, along with its subsidiary, Senegalese telecommunications provider Sonatel, has announced a partnership with satellite operator SES.
The agreement involves the deployment and management of the first O3b mPOWER gateway in Africa. It will be used by Sonatel and Orange to deliver high-performance, low-latency, and cloud-optimised connectivity services throughout Africa.
The gateway for O3b mPOWER, SES’s next-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) communications system, will be located at the Sonatel teleport in Gandoul, said to be the home of the very first 30-metre satellite dish to be installed in Africa.
SES's O3b mPOWER communications system comprises an initial constellation of 11 high-throughput and low-latency satellites as well as extensive ground infrastructure. Launching this year, the global terabit-level scalable MEO constellation will generate thousands of dynamic beams.
SES will also use the gateway to support telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) functions for the O3b mPOWER fleet from an additional location. The terabit-scale O3b mPOWER constellation and its automated, advanced ground infrastructure can dynamically deliver multiple gigabits-per-second beams of managed data services to customers.
In a nice additional touch, Orange, Sonatel and SES intend to establish a memorial on site at the Gandoul gateway. It will highlight the history of satellite connectivity in Africa and the positive impact that advanced technologies and solutions such as O3b mPOWER can have on the continent.
It was in early 2020 that Orange announced it was to be the first global telecom operator to integrate the O3b mPOWER communications system in its network to support the growing demand for connectivity in Africa.
