Vodacom Tanzania to Offer Service Via Eutelsat Konnect

Artist rendition of the Eutelsat KONNECT VHTS satellite. Photo: Eutelsat

Eutelsat has signed another deal with a major telco, this time in Africa. Following up a recent agreement with Deutsche Telecom, Eutelsat has now has signed a service agreement with Vodacom Tanzania for packaged services to bring connectivity to underserved regions of Tanzania, leveraging Eutelsat’s Eutelsat KONNECT high-throughput satellite. The deal was announced Dec. 2.

Vodacom Tanzania, part of the United Kingdom’s Vodafone Group and has around 15 million customers in Tanzania. It was founded in 2000. Following a successful trial, Vodacom will commercialize services on the Eutelsat KONNECT satellite under its own brand, building out its service offer to customers previously unreached by its existing infrastructure, notably in the B2B and hospitality verticals. Installation services will be undertaken by Eutelsat subsidiary Konnect Africa on behalf of Vodacom.

“We are delighted to incorporate satellite to our suite of services, leveraging the state-of-the art Eutelsat KONNECT satellite to fulfil our mission to deliver connectivity to all regions of Tanzania. With KONNECT, Vodacom will cover 100% of the country, connecting all regions, districts and villages no matter how remote they are. With this service, we will connect everyone, this includes areas which are not covered today, giving access to services up to 100 Mbps,” Sitholizwe Mdlalose, managing director of Vodacom Tanzania said in a statement.