Satellite services provider Intelsat and telecommunications group Vodacom on Monday inked an agreement that would see the delivery of more reliable, secure and cost-efficient broadband connectivity to small or home-based offices and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across sub-Saharan Africa.
“Our [managed broadband service] agreement with Intelsat will enable Vodacom to provide our SME and enterprise customers with high-quality, reliable, secure and cost-effective connectivity,” Vodacom Business head Vuyani Jarana said in a statement.
The growth of SMEs, which was a “critical component” in driving Africa’s economic development, job creation and gross domestic product, was dependent on consistent broadband connectivity to help ensure that businesses thrived in an already complex and competitive landscape.
“We worked closely with Vodacom to address their future business demands, providing capacity through traditional wide and high-throughput satellite spot beams to locations where our customers need it most,” explained regional VP for Africa Grant Marais.
Intelsat, delivering a fully integrated and managed solution, would provide Ku-band satellite broadband capacity to Vodacom on Intelsat 28 at 32.8ºE, enabling Vodacom to manage its service platform and determine the service levels while maintaining direct engagement with its customer base.
Further, when the Intelsat 33e satellite entered service in 2016, Vodacom would be able to seamlessly access a high-performance overlay, providing additional throughput for its busiest regions.