OneWeb has announced the signing of a partnership agreement with Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across Africa. This strategic agreement will help to deliver OneWeb’s high-speed, low-latency LEO connectivity services to government and enterprise customers across vast swathes of the continent. 

The partnership will focus on delivering satellite communications services to enterprise and civil government customers for various use cases, including connectivity in rural areas, agriculture, hospitals, hotels, schools, and the energy and mining sectors. OneWeb and Airtel Africa will also provide critical backhaul in unserved and underserved regions. 

This announcement builds upon OneWeb’s existing initiatives in Africa, including installations of Satellite Network Portals (SNP) in Angola, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Mauritius. With only four more launches, OneWeb remains on track to activate its coverage solutions in Africa, and worldwide in 2023.

According to Ben Griffin, VP Mobility and AMEA at OneWeb, “At OneWeb, we believe that connection everywhere changes everything, so we are excited to be working with Airtel Africa to enhance OneWeb’s connectivity solutions across the African continent. This is a strategic fit, given our shared commitment to resiliency and excellence in communications services, and the partnership represents another exciting milestone on our path to delivering global connectivity. We look forward to delivering high-performance service across Africa, even in the hardest-to-reach places.” 

Luc Serviant, Group Enterprise Director, Airtel Business at Airtel Africa, commented, “Internet penetration is rising across Africa, and systems are even more connected as the digital transformation drives growth amongst organisations. Through our partnership with OneWeb, we will support SMEs, entrepreneurs, corporates and governments to do business everywhere in Africa, with low latency and highly resilient communication services. OneWeb and Airtel Africa will begin trialling service in South Africa in September, with plans to achieve full coverage in 2023 across Airtel Africa’s footprint, comprising 14 countries in East, Central and West Africa.”