Barney Harmse, Chairman: Paratus Group in Africa, has said that Group is positioning itself to be a major player in the low earth orbit (LEO) technology, confirmed by the fact that they are building the OneWeb gateway (teleport) in Angola and have also signed a multi-year distribution agreement with them to provide LEO solutions and services across the whole continent.
“As we are currently one of the biggest VSAT players in Africa, I’m confident that our planning and rollout to cater portfolio services is well advanced compared to other telco operators. Our plans to deploy LEO satellite technology and solutions are also very advanced.
“We also have a strong focus on ground infrastructure, which gives us a great advantage because we can connect to a contiguous network in all the countries where we operate. We continuously lay fiber in all the seven main countries where we have a permanent presence, using a combination of trenched and aerial fiber depending on the country’s climate and environment,” Harmse said.
He adds that very small aperture terminal (VSAT) plays a key role in Africa and globally, especially in remote areas where there is a lack of infrastructure to deliver quality connectivity.
“We have been following the development of low earth orbit (LEO) technology versus geosynchronous technology. Geosynchronous orbit satellites sit right above the equator at a certain altitude, as the Earth and the satellite can travel at the same speed when they are in orbit. On the other hand, LEO satellites orbit much closer to the Earth’s surface, requiring more satellites to be deployed by operators.
“There are currently two big names in the LEO space, one of which is OneWeb. Compared to current geosynchronous, LEO satellite systems offer low latency due to the proximity to the Earth. If there is an antenna on the ground, either at the customer site or the enterprise, LEO technology can provide faster data transfer times,” he said further.
Investments
Harmse noted that Paratus invests heavily in building their own infrastructure throughout Africa – creating fiber highways across thousands of kilometers, building teleport earth stations, and building state of the art data centers.
“In Angola, we built our first two data centers, and in October 2021, launched the Lusaka data center in Zambia. [In 2022], we launched our data center in Windhoek and the Equiano cable landing station in Swakopmund. Paratus is the Google-appointed landing partner for the Equiano cable, and the landing station is effectively another Paratus-built data center. This brings our total count to five data centers, all of which are internationally certified.
“We successfully brought the cable onshore in Namibia in July 2022, and Equiano has already gone live, creating 20 times more internet capacity than is currently available in Namibia. We plan our investments and our expansion very carefully in order to ensure returns and that we are true to our mission of transforming Africa through excellent digital infrastructure and services,” he said.
Humble beginnings
Paratus established its first presence in Angola in 2003. Since then, “we have expanded from Angola to Namibia in 2004, and then to Zambia. Our initial focus was internet connectivity and we have evolved over the past 20 years into a leading pan-African telecommunications group. We currently provide products and services in over 35 African countries. We have professional teams operating in seven countries – namely, Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – and we provide satellite services for 28+ African countries.”
Additional reporting by EPC