Afsat balks as Africa satellite services grow

Despite the launch of an Angolan satellite in Africa last week, the continent's leading broadband provider, Afsat, is still declining to purchase capacity from any of the region's satellite services until reliability is proven.

Afsat's stance highlights some of the continent's broadband infrastructure issues.

Last week, Angola became the fifth African country to put up a geostationary satellite when President José Eduardo dos Santos officially launched "Infrasat," expected to beam signals across Africa and bolster services for the southern African states.

Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Algeria have satellites in orbit, providing mainly broadcast services and broadband connectivity. In addition, Rascomstar-Qaf1, funded by 53 African states under the Regional African Satellite Communication Organization, was launched last year and reaches every corner of the continent.

Afsat has established business relations with SES NewSkies and Intelsat, and will only buy capacity from African satellites once the ability to service the satellites and offer satisfactory customer support is established.

"Afsat recognizes the technological leaps made by Africa, but we will give the satellites three years before we can consider buying capacity from them," said Job Ndege, general manager at Afsat.

With more than 8,000 VSAT and broadband Afsat sites in Africa depending on satellite, Ndege said that Rascomstar would provide the best option because of its wide coverage and much-needed bandwidth to rural areas.

"Afsat was very optimistic when Rascomstar was launched into orbit in December last year because it has a footprint in every corner of the continent," said Ndege. "But the satellite had a helium leak and currently only one transponder working, which limits the capacity."

When operating successfully at full capacity, Rascomstar would add eight C-Band and 12 Ku-band transponders to the African market, which is significant capacity.

International satellite companies offer the best customer support because they have invested heavily, said Dennis Wambugu, general manager of Get2Net, an ISP (Internet service provider).

"Satellite capacity is the same whether from Nigcomsat or NewSkies; what matters is the maintenance of the satellites and customer support in case of a problem," Wambugu said.

Wambugu acknowledges that Africa has also invested, and stresses that, in general, it is important to support the continent's initiatives. "When we buy from international companies, the money goes out there, but when you buy from Africa, the profits remain in Africa."

However, Wambugu cautions against blind support of mediocre initiatives that offer poor service, adding that African satellites should be able to compete with other international companies in terms of service delivery.

With Infrasat, Angola hopes to offer data, voice, image and high-speed Internet as well as transmission of radio and television signals. The oil-rich southern African state wants to spur development by linking sectors such as education, health, culture, defense, public administration, banking, airports and border checkpoints.

Angola also is one of the investors in the SAT 3 fiber-optic cable linking West and southern Africa through Portugal. SAT 3 has 36 shareholders, and the three major shareholders are TCI, a subsidiary of AT&T (U.S.A.); France Telecom (France) and VSNL (India, Singapore).

Though fiber is cheaper than satellite, SAT 3 has failed to lower the cost of bandwidth. Investors are pushing for returns on their cash, and officials in participating countries complain about the high landing station costs, preferring to maintain satellite services. Angola’s landing station is in Cacuaco, Nigeria has a landing point in Lagos, and the SAT 3 landing point in South Africa is in Cape Town.