Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Pixabay.

The Konnect Africa broadband venture set up by Eutelsat Communications has officially launched new-generation services this month, starting in Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda. Konnect Africa’s service offerings and products include packaged offers inspired by “pay-as-you-go” models and Wi-Fi hotspot schemes.

First partners include local operators, telecom companies and resellers, notably AfrikaNet GoSat (Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire), Bentley Walker (multiple African markets), Bloosat (Cameroon, Central Africa), Coollink (Nigeria), Global Broadband Solution (Democratic Republic of Congo), Terrace Projects (South Africa), Ubora Systems (Kenya), as well as China Telecom that is establishing communications links between the African continent and the Asia-Pacific region.

Konnect Africa is initially using capacity on Yahsat’s Al Yah 2 satellite, which carries 16 Ka-band spotbeams, with expansion supported by a further 18 spotbeams on the Al Yah 3 satellite scheduled for launch by the end of 2017. Konnect Africa aims to cover most of Sub-Saharan Africa by 2019.