Spacecom, a leading satellite communications service provider, has unveiled two new advanced platforms to enable sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to provide nationwide coverage. The platforms are NationSAT and Digital Community Platform (DCP), riding on Spacecom’s Amos-17 satellite capabilities.

Spacecom unveiled the new platforms at the Communication Africa 2021 conference on January 28, 2021. Improvate, an Israeli business company that connects governments and innovation companies, organised the conference in collaboration with Spacecom. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change was also an organising partner and its executive chairman, Tony Blair, was the keynote speaker.

“The main challenges in Africa are the lack of terrestrial infrastructure, electricity, and finance”, Dan Zajicek, CEO of Spacecom, said. “And the opportunity is that Africa is young and new technologies are being adopted much faster than in the west”. Dan became the chief executive officer of Spacecom last year.

NationSAT and DCP would enable SSA countries to provide immediate and long-term communications services, irrespective of location and financing models. According to Spacecom, DCP is scalable and flexible. And it could enable the provision of governmental, educational, agricultural, medical, and commercial services.

“What we’re doing with NationSAT and the Digital Community Platform is to guarantee that every citizen within a nation will be awarded or guaranteed the same level of governmental services irrespective of their proximity to the urban areas”, Spacecom said.

“The new services meet all the needs of the conference participants and provide African countries with full internet and communications coverage, enabling acceleration of state development, and improving services provided to citizens in all fields of life”.

Tony Blair, who is also a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, said properly deployed communications satellite would be transformative for Africa. “I think there will be enormous interest in Africa in how satellite technology can help with connectivity and communication”, Tony said. “Africa provides huge opportunities for the Israeli tech sector; an opportunity for Israel to showcase what it can do”.

In addition to the keynote speech, Communications Africa 2021 conference also featured panel sessions. It convened Africa’s ministers, policymakers, and global technology leaders. The speakers and panellists at the conference include:

• Hamadoun Toure, Mali’s Minister of Communication
• Yoaz Hendel, former Israeli Minister of Communication
• Napoleon Adok Gai, South Sudan’s Director-General of National Communication Authority
• Job Masima, Tanzanian Ambassador to Israel
• Juanita Clark, CEO of Digital Council Africa, South Africa
• Professor Mamuor Chol, Director-General for Accreditation, Private and Foreign Higher Education Institutions
• Dr Abraham Asante, CEO of Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication
• Oren Tepper, Spacecom’s Senior Vice President for Sales
• Reta Nega, Ethiopia’s Ambassador and Special Envoy to Israel
• Abdissa Yilma, Head of Ethiopian Space Science & Technology Institute
• Adrian Hall, COO of Extensia Limited
• Izhar Shay, former Israeli Minister of Science and Technology
• Wol Mayar Ariec, South Sudan’s Head of Mission and Ambassador to Israel
• Ofer Asif, Spacecom’s Senior Vice President for Business Development, Marketing and Strategy
• Yariv Cohen, CEO of Ignite Power
• Arie Sznaj, Head of International Finance at Bank Leum
• Aviv Ronai, NovelSat’s Vice President for Marketing and Product 
• Ismaila Togola, CEO of Société Malienne de Transmission et de Diffusion-SA

Juanita said, “Fiber versus satellite is not either-or. We have to look at how they complement each other…. Satellite, in particular, has an immense role to play in connecting rural communities to the digital economy”.

Abdissa corroborated her submission. He said, “The major goal of satellites is to support national development programme in the area of agriculture, natural resource management, urban, rural and land management, and also in the area of communication”.

“Connectivity is essential to remote areas and is an enabler of social growth throughout Africa”, Aviv said. “Satellite is the only thing that can provide connectivity over such large areas”.

The CEO of Improvate, Ronit Hasin Hochman, said Improvate is proud to help bring space technologies to Africa. “The Amos satellite fleet paints the globe blue and white and now enables African countries as well to benefit from advanced communications that improve all areas of life”, she said.