OneWeb has again gone further in scaling better connectivity. This is after they announced the signing of a partnership agreement with Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across Africa. This strategic agreement will help to deliver OneWeb’s high-speed, low-latency LEO connectivity services to government and enterprise customers across wide swathes of the continent.
The partnership will focus on delivering satellite communications services to enterprise and civil government customers for a wide range of use cases, including for connectivity in rural areas, agriculture, hospitals, hotels, schools, and in the energy and mining sectors. OneWeb and Airtel Africa will also provide critical backhaul in unserved and underserved regions.
This will build up OneWeb’s existing initiatives in Africa, including installations of Satellite Network Portals (SNP) in Angola, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Mauritius. With only four more launches to go, OneWeb also remains on track to activate its coverage solutions in Africa, and elsewhere around the world, in 2023.
According to Ben Griffin the VP in Mobility and AMEA in OneWeb, he said that they believe that connection everywhere changes everything and so they are excited to be working with Airtel Africa to enhance OneWeb’s connectivity solutions across the African continent.
“ This is a strategic fit, given our shared commitment to resiliency and excellence in communications services, and the partnership represents another exciting milestone on our path to delivering global connectivity. We look forward to delivering high-performance service across Africa, even in the hardest to reach places.” Griffin said.
In Africa, Internet penetration is rising and systems are even more connected as the digital transformation is driving growth amongst organizations. Through this partnership with, it will support SMEs, entrepreneurs, corporates and governments to do business everywhere in Africa, with low latency and highly resilient communication services.
OneWeb and Airtel Africa will begin trialling service in South Africa in September, with plans to achieve full coverage in 2023 across Airtel Africa’s footprint, comprising 14 countries in East, Central and West Africa.
By Jane Kibathi
