 | Issue: | AME 2013 |
| Article no.: | 11 | |
| Topic: | Satellite – the access master key? | |
| Author: | Patrick Biewer | |
| Title: | Managing Director | |
| Organisation: | SES Broadband Services | |
| PDF size: | 379KB |
About author
Patrick Biewer is the Managing Director of SES Broadband Services; he has extensive experience in broadband technology execution, as well as product and business development in the European telecommunications industry. Prior to joining SES Broadband Services, Patrick held several management positions within SES, where he was responsible for Product Management for Enterprise and Multimedia Product Engineering and Operations..
Patrick Biewer holds an MBA from the Open University as well as a Master degree in telecommunications.
Article abstract
Satellite broadband offers a quick, low-cost, way to connect Africa to the Internet and link citizens, businesses and governments to services, information, entertainment and, indeed, to the world. Broadband connects farmers to their markets and small-medium businesses with their customers, students to education and villages to healthcare and learning. Accelerating the deployment and use of affordable broadband is an important element in the plans of Africa’s governments, and satellite will play an important role in both terrestrial and wireless networks.
Full Article
The challenges of universal internet access and the social and economical impact of the digital divide are keenly felt across Africa. Although internet access is widely recognised as a critical driver of social and economic development, universal provision is the key and in Africa there are many remote communities outside the reach of existing terrestrial infrastructure that cannot share in the benefits that the internet provides. Low population density, remote communities, harsh climate and financial obstacles have prevented the economic expansion of terrestrial connectivity, and reliable internet access, into non-urban – and even suburban– areas, to the disadvantage of whole African regions.
Broadband Delivery Landscape and its Reach
Terrestrial fibre networks are now being deployed in Africa faster than at any other time in the continent’s history, resulting in an increase in demand for broadband delivery in this market. In the twelve months from July 2011 to July 2012, an additional 36,165-km of terrestrial fibre optic network entered service according to the Africa Telecom Transmission Map . Whilst the pace of this progress is impressive there are challenges for deployment that mean it is just not fast enough to meet the growing demand. Research firm Point Topic notes that even today there is functionally no fibre in commercial or residential use and a very limited amount in business use across Africa. Even when the fiber infrastructure is in place, its availability to and through tier-2 and tier-3 service providers can be a major challenge, though vital to get any new services out to local populations.
Satellite broadband offers an immediate and affordable technological solution to African governments, NGOs and commercial service providers seeking to extend the reach of their internet provision or social development projects into non-urban regions and deprived communities. Satellite brings connectivity quickly to those who need it, much more quickly than terrestrial roll outs can. It also has the capability to connect the unconnected in geographies with prohibitive natural and manmade entry barriers and it complements terrestrial networks even helping to accelerate their deployment by providing backbone infrastructure.
It is also a fact that all kinds of wireless infrastructures are suited to serve Africa’s broadband requirements, like WIMAX and LTE. Even with these solutions satellite has always and will continue to play an integral and important role, providing quick, widespread and reliable backhaul connectivity.
Another application for satellite in Africa is data offload for existing terrestrial networks. SAT>IP is one of the examples on how new innovative product can effectively and easily offload video traffic from mobile networks. Sat>IP provides access to quality DTH video content to Wi-Fi and other terrestrial wireless offload technologies.
For Africa satellite will always play an important role in the “Always Best Connected” challenge.
Beyond Vanilla vanilla Broadband broadband Connectivityconnectivity
Technical developments within the satellite ground and space segment have driven the sector forward in recent years. This, combined with the knowledge and expertise within the satellite market from many decades experience within broadcast, makes satellite suited and in fact tailored to various applications including eLearning and education. It is also ideal for building bespoke applications for uses including micro finance, money transfer and satellite elections.
Focus on Electionselections
One such example is the broadband services which were used to deliver fast and secure transfer of ballots, video conferencing and internet access during the 2012 national elections in Burkina Faso. With no rural terrestrial connection, SES Broadband Services, in partnership with Newtec, AccessSat and Unicom provided the country with satellite broadband links, which were used to connect electoral offices across the country. This resulted in an improved electoral process, enhancing democracy and social development in the country, whilst leaving a legacy network with a lot of potential. The project introduced broadband communications to many remote areas for the first time, bridging the digital divide. After the elections, the broadband infrastructure is being redeployed to schools, hospitals, public offices and remote communities for initiatives in eLearning and eGovernance.
Developing Satellite satellite Tech tech for a Growing growing Demand demand
Africa faces a serious battle for connectivity as demand continues to rapidly expand. Satellite broadband and the services delivered are, in general, becoming more affordable and accessible. On the equipment side, new technologies offer cheaper, smaller, more affordable and convenient terminals that are orientated for consumer and small office users. From the perspective of supply of satellite capacity, there is also significant progress which has been made over the recent years. Whereas more enterprise centric broadband applications were requiring C-band capacity, significant Ku and more recently also Ka-band satellite capacities have been developed over Africa, thus enabling satellite broadband services to play an integral part in the digital development of users across multiple infrastructures in Africa.
Summary
Satellite broadband offers an immediate and low-cost solution to Africa by providing an efficient and affordable form of connectivity. Governments, NGOs, households and commercial service providers are continually looking to extend the reach of their internet provision and with the help of new satellite technologies this can be achieved.
Broadband is key for connecting farmers to their markets and small-medium businesses with their customers, students to education and villages to healthcare and learning. Accelerating the deployment and use of affordable broadband remains an important element in governmental plans across the continent. Whether the user is accessing these services via terrestrial, or wireless infrastructure, satellite will play an important part either directly or somewhere in the network.
