Satellite group SES to invest in Africa

Speaking at a press gathering in Sandton, Johannesburg, ahead of SatCom Africa 2011 at the Sandton Convention Centre from May 31 - June 1, Scott Sprague, the senior vice-president for global sales at SES, said that there were many parallels between the African market and Latin America.

"If you reflect back on Latin America six to seven years ago, it was in political turmoil, it lacked stable governments and their economies were in political recession."

"He said that the landscape had since changed. "In the Latin American market today, you have very stable governments and their economies have become much stronger."

"What we are seeing today is a market place exploding with opportunities for services in telecommunications."

"I believe what we are going to see happening in Africa is just what happened in Latin America," Sprague said.

He said that local economies were strengthening through foreign investment, while governments were starting to stabilise, resulting in growth in the African market place.

"In many ways Africa is similar to Latin America geographically and the infrastructure that is necessary to support customers."

"That is why over the next few years SES is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in satellite infrastructure to support the African market," Sprague said adding that it included not only infrastructure and satellites, but people and processes.

"We want to help the service providers in the African market place to utilise satellite technology," he said.

SES provides satellite communications solutions via a global fleet of 44 satellites. The group said that it had four new satellites designated for use in Africa.

It already had six satellites over the continent.

"We all know that fibre is coming into the African market at an unprecedented rate and the market is digesting all that new capacity, trying to figure out what to do with it.'

'The reality is what its bringing is new opportunities for the African market to grow," Sprague said.

He did note a recent lull in the market, following an unprecedented growth rate for a number of years, but quickly added: "The future is extremely bright for satellite application in Africa."

SES announced on Monday (30 May 2011) that it had signed an internet connectivity agreement with YellowSat, a French start-up company that provides internet connectivity to enterprises, governments and institutions across Africa.

YellowSat assists customers by supplying satellite capacity and the necessary reception equipment to provide connectivity, telephony and video surveillance to homes and businesses in remote locations.