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[Satellite News 12-08-09] After hitting 50,000 connections for Astra2Connect in October, SES Astra now is looking outside of Europe, particularly to the Middle East and Africa, to expand the service, Norbert Willems, managing director of SES Astra Broadband Services, said
“Over the next 12 months, we expect to add another 50,000 subscribers. We are currently adding around 10,000 a quarter, but we see some upside potential which we have not put into our business plan, particularly outside of Europe,” Willems told Satellite News. “We are also eagerly looking into the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula but also going further East with Iraq.”
Astra2Connect, launched in early 2007, is available in 14 countries throughout Europe and 10 countries in Central and Eastern Africa. The availability has been expanded by recently signed deals Kenya and with Galaxy Backbone, a public enterprise of the federal government of Nigeria, to deliver a range of information and communication technology services to rural and remote government offices, schools and hospitals in communities throughout all 36 Nigerian states via the Astra 2B satellite in September. “Demand for connectivity is spreading across Nigeria at levels we’ve never seen before, much of it driven by the huge economic growth in the country,” Martin Ahachi, CTO of Galaxy Backbone, said.
SES Astra already has initiated a Middle East and Africa strategy and is negotiating potential telco deals in the region. “We hope to have a deal with a telco in the Middle East in the next three months,” said Williems.
SES Astra also upgraded the speed of its service, with download rates of up to 4,096 kilobits per second and upload rates of up to 360 kilobits per second.
However, the African market comes with ambitious competitors in the fibre connectivity industry. Sea Submarine Communication’s (Seacom) has been competing with satellite companies in Africa for valuable emerging market connectivity contracts through its 15,000-kilometer submarine cable service, launched in July. Seacom claims satellite operators are “too expensive” when compared to Seacom’s service.
SES World Skies and its customers have been vocal in responding to Seacom’s challenge. “East Africa has recently been connected to the Information Superhighway on submarine fiber, but unfortunately, only the users in urban areas will benefit from this Internet revolution. The last mile connectivity is still a challenge and this is where SES’ broadband service and satellite capacity fit in. The Astra2Connect service also complements our Rural Internet Kiosk program which will empower thousands of Africans with high-speed Internet,” Abdul Bakhrani, CEO of Intersat Africa, a customer of SES Astra, said.
Willems said that while satellite may perceive to have a competitive disadvantage in terms of pricing and speeds compared to terrestrial broadband offerings, it is not always the case. “With respect to speeds, it is very relative to what is delivered in the market. The speeds advertised by DSL providers are often much less. With optimization protocols you have on the satellite, you come much closer to the reality of the DSL world as well. What I am saying is the 4 Mbps satellite package is not comparable to a 4 Mbps DSL package, because the enhancements you get, you get more performance on a satellite package,” he said.
Willems added that SES projects regional telcos are not in a position to spend huge amounts of capital targeting the same rural areas to compete with Astra2Connect. “We expect to remain rather stable as telcos are not spending big money to increase the overall landmass of these services,” said Williems. “Even if the deployments are reaching more remote areas, what we have realized there is a clear trend that investments in terrestrial infrastructure is done in areas where there is the deepest penetration. They want to retain their customer base in the main areas. So, they add functionalities in those areas. Their focus is still more on well-served areas, rather than areas where there is nothing. The unserved market is not necessarily shrinking.”
“Over the next 12 months, we expect to add another 50,000 subscribers. We are currently adding around 10,000 a quarter, but we see some upside potential which we have not put into our business plan, particularly outside of Europe,” Willems told Satellite News. “We are also eagerly looking into the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula but also going further East with Iraq.”
Astra2Connect, launched in early 2007, is available in 14 countries throughout Europe and 10 countries in Central and Eastern Africa. The availability has been expanded by recently signed deals Kenya and with Galaxy Backbone, a public enterprise of the federal government of Nigeria, to deliver a range of information and communication technology services to rural and remote government offices, schools and hospitals in communities throughout all 36 Nigerian states via the Astra 2B satellite in September. “Demand for connectivity is spreading across Nigeria at levels we’ve never seen before, much of it driven by the huge economic growth in the country,” Martin Ahachi, CTO of Galaxy Backbone, said.
SES Astra already has initiated a Middle East and Africa strategy and is negotiating potential telco deals in the region. “We hope to have a deal with a telco in the Middle East in the next three months,” said Williems.
SES Astra also upgraded the speed of its service, with download rates of up to 4,096 kilobits per second and upload rates of up to 360 kilobits per second.
However, the African market comes with ambitious competitors in the fibre connectivity industry. Sea Submarine Communication’s (Seacom) has been competing with satellite companies in Africa for valuable emerging market connectivity contracts through its 15,000-kilometer submarine cable service, launched in July. Seacom claims satellite operators are “too expensive” when compared to Seacom’s service.
SES World Skies and its customers have been vocal in responding to Seacom’s challenge. “East Africa has recently been connected to the Information Superhighway on submarine fiber, but unfortunately, only the users in urban areas will benefit from this Internet revolution. The last mile connectivity is still a challenge and this is where SES’ broadband service and satellite capacity fit in. The Astra2Connect service also complements our Rural Internet Kiosk program which will empower thousands of Africans with high-speed Internet,” Abdul Bakhrani, CEO of Intersat Africa, a customer of SES Astra, said.
Willems said that while satellite may perceive to have a competitive disadvantage in terms of pricing and speeds compared to terrestrial broadband offerings, it is not always the case. “With respect to speeds, it is very relative to what is delivered in the market. The speeds advertised by DSL providers are often much less. With optimization protocols you have on the satellite, you come much closer to the reality of the DSL world as well. What I am saying is the 4 Mbps satellite package is not comparable to a 4 Mbps DSL package, because the enhancements you get, you get more performance on a satellite package,” he said.
Willems added that SES projects regional telcos are not in a position to spend huge amounts of capital targeting the same rural areas to compete with Astra2Connect. “We expect to remain rather stable as telcos are not spending big money to increase the overall landmass of these services,” said Williems. “Even if the deployments are reaching more remote areas, what we have realized there is a clear trend that investments in terrestrial infrastructure is done in areas where there is the deepest penetration. They want to retain their customer base in the main areas. So, they add functionalities in those areas. Their focus is still more on well-served areas, rather than areas where there is nothing. The unserved market is not necessarily shrinking.”
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