A visualization of SES’s O3b mPOWER. Photo: SES

African telco Orange and subsidiary Sonatel are partnering with SES to deploy and manage the O3b mPOWER constellation’s first gateway in Africa, the companies announced Wednesday. The gateway will be located at the Sonatel teleport in the Senegalese territory of Gandoul and will deliver low-latency, and cloud-optimized connectivity services in Africa.

This agreement follows after Orange signed on in 2020 as the first telco to adopt O3b mPOWER, with plans to start service from the constellation in the Central African Republic. 

SES said it will also use the gateway to support telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) functions for the O3b mPOWER fleet. SES CEO Steve Collar said the gateway will enable Sonatel and Orange to deliver more bandwidth via O3b mPOWER to remote and underserved regions. 

“We continue to believe that satellite remains a promising technology and that the many innovations it currently showcases will give it an increasingly growing position in the telecommunication field, in Africa as well as other countries, ” commented Jean-Luc Vuillemin, executive vice president of Orange International Networks. This partnership “will add a major new component to Orange’s mission to build intelligent, open networks in order to foster usages and access to digital technologies for the greatest number of people.” 

The Sonatel teleport was the site of Africa’s first 30-meter satellite dish. Orange, Sonatel and SES also plan to establish a memorial on site at the Gandoul gateway to highlight the history of satellite connectivity in Africa.