[Via Satellite 11-12-14] Raga Sat has gone live on O3b Networks’ Fiber in the Sky satellite network. The Democratic Republic of Congo-based service provider is the first African client to be brought up on the O3b network since it started commercial operations earlier in the year.

Raga Sat is a central African provider of satellite services, currently delivering connectivity across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country of more than 75 million people, including 10 million in the capital city of Kinshasa alone. Raga Sat customers, including Orange, will benefit from the use of O3b satellites, which are closer to the Earth than conventional geostationary satellites, providing reduced latency, increased Internet data rates and improved voice and video quality for the user. Orange launched its 3G network in the DRC in 2013 and currently has around 3 million subscribers in the country.

“The service we can offer to customers such as Orange has been vastly improved overnight. After years of disappointment, DRC consumers and businesses can now genuinely look forward to the prospect of proper connectivity,” said Philippe Israel, managing director of Raga Sat.