Africa
David Shapshak
A new generation of low-orbit communications satellites could be the boost African telecommunications is looking for.
While South Africa’s fledgling techno- enthusiastic population has embraced cellular telephony, it has not established much else on the continent. However, satellite companies are expecting Africa to hop directly to satellite use.
Communication by satellite has many advantages. There is no need to lay the costly fibre optic cabling, switches and other fundamentals necessary for a terrestrial telephone network.
Satellite telephones have been augmenting the communication of many business interests in remote parts of Africa, mostly mining operations, for many years. And journalists covering myriad wars in Africa in the past few years have relied on sat-phones to transmit stories.
However, sat-phones are a luxury for only a few of Africa’s elite and foreigners.
But, says Ed Staiano, CEO of Iridium, while the early systems are too expensive for the average person, the company will fund the development of more efficient, cheaper systems.
Iridium, a subsidiary of Motorola, recently launched the last of its 66 low-orbit satellites whose network – or constellation – will cover the globe. It will be operational by September.
“We see our market, in the early stages, as primarily serving developers, tourists and business interests, not so much solving the complete rural problem. But it’ll be the same phenomenon as cellular [telephony] – because of the demand it will be quickly funded and we can develop the system to bring costs down.”
Constellations like Iridium and Globalstar – another low-orbit constellation expected to be operational before the end of the year – are in lower orbits, 780km and 1 414km respectively, than the existing networks, such as Inmarsat-3.
The advantage of the low-orbit satellites, says Staiano, is there is no delay in conversations: the satellites require less energy to transmit the call and the handsets can be much smaller.
Iridium and Globalstar plan to offer integration with terrestrial cellular networks, with both offering a variety of phone models which offer either subscriber identification module (SIM) cards or a satellite cradle.
Globalstar’s John Cunningham says Africa has several distinct telephone markets which satellite telephony could service without depriving a country’s telecom organisation of its revenue streams. He adds that satellite communications can instantly provide infrastructure, anywhere on the continent. Both Iridium and Globalstar are planning to include universal service components to their service.
Staiano is offering various subsidisation schemes for African countries so they may use Iridium’s sat-phones for crisis management and disaster relief.
Sat-phone application in rural areas of developing countries has already proved fruitful. In 11 villages in northern India, where there is no telephone network nor electricity, solar-powered “phone boxes” let villagers make government-subsidised calls. There are similar schemes in Ghana, China, Tanzania and South Africa.
Another advantages of satellite communication is that you can use your sat-phone anywhere, even in the middle of an ocean.
“New kinds of satellite systems, known as GMPCS [global mobile personal communications by satellite], are due to begin operations in the coming months and years, promising a level of access to telecommunications never before attained [in Africa],” says Pekka Tarjanne, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union.
“GMPCS has the potential to bring greatly improved access to telecommunications, particularly in remote, rural or under- served areas.”
However, the most reliable means of communicating in Africa during the short term is radio, says Julius Lieberman, MD of Lieberman Communications, South Africa’s largest supplier of Motorola’s two-way radio system.
Nonetheless, satellite still holds the most promise for a continent-wide telecoms system. Satellite communication could not only leapfrog technology, but also the restrictive regulatory environments of many African countries whose governments retain almost dictatorial control of national telecommunications companys and whatever lucrative profits they generate.
The communications ministers of several African countries announced during the recent Africa Telecom that they would be working towards creating more investor- friendly environments for foreign financiers.
Tarjanne points this out as the way, in the words of Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Jay Naidoo, to “smart catapult” the continent into First World tele-communication.