LIVE FROM MWC25 BARCELONA: Orange Africa and Middle East and Eutelsat partnered to provide satellite broadband connectivity across isolated areas of the region, a move the operator pitched as addressing a digital divide and improving inclusion.
The service will use Eutelsat’s geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) Konnect satellite, with Jordan, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo initial targets.
Orange stated the service would deliver data rates of up to 100Mb/s, along with complying with national regulations.
In a briefing, Orange Wholesale CEO Michael Trabbia said he is “a big supporter of satellite, where it makes sense”.
“In Africa, it can make a lot of sense.”
“Even if we are investing a lot to expand our network, there are still some significant parts of the territory that are not covered.”
Backhaul and boats
Trabbia cautioned satellite-based services are not a panacea for all problems, with congestion possible in areas with large concentrations of users.
He identified opportunities to employ satellites for mobile backhaul in remote areas of Africa which do not have fibre and also in the maritime sector.
“I just don’t want people to consider it a magic solution and that we don’t need a terrestrial network anymore, because it’s not a reality.”
Trabbia said spectrum sharing by European countries is complex because there are “several countries, several operators, each running a spectrum”.
“If you want to do the same thing with telco spectrum, it would be a nightmare, because you will have interferences and you will have a lot of restrictions”.
“We believe we need to think about alternatives in order to consider this kind of service in Europe.”
Orange is a member of IRIS2, a the European Union effort to build a satellite constellation, but Trabbia said it is a long term project with services likely to launch in 2030.
“We need to first design, then build, launch and operate.”
“IRIS2 is interesting because it will embed 5G from the start.”