Aerial view of Gaborone, Botswana. Photo: Wikimedia.

The Botswana Communications Regulator Authority (BOCRA) has granted terrestrial authority to Globalstar’s Botswana subsidiary to provide terrestrial mobile broadband services over 16.5 MHz of S-band spectrum at 2483.5 to 2500 MHz.

In 2014, in partnership with Broadband Botswana Internet (BBi), Globalstar announced the construction of its commercial gateway located in Gaborone, Botswana. This project brought Globalstar’s commercial Spot and Simplex service to southern Africa in 2015. Through this gateway, Globalstar provides coverage to Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi, Angola, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi and Zambia, in addition to surrounding ocean areas for the commercial shipping markets.

Globalstar filed its application for terrestrial authority in Botswana in early 2017 and stated it appreciates BOCRA’s accelerated review. With this approval, Botswana becomes the first country outside of the United States to approve Globalstar’s terrestrial S-band authority and the first country to approve the authority over 16.5 MHz across Globalstar’s licensed 2.4 GHz holdings.

“BOCRA is a leader in spectrum policy for the continent of Africa and this approval provides Botswana with significant expanded spectrum for terrestrial mobile broadband. We believe other regulators across Africa and the world will agree that BOCRA’s approval represents sound spectrum policy for consumers and we look forward to additional approvals,” said Jay Monroe, Globalstar Chief Executive Officer (CEO).