The Angolan government began commercial operation of the Angosat-2 satellite, which will enable national and international operators and small entrepreneurs to provide telecommunications services in the country, Africa and southern Europe.
During the announcement in Luanda last Friday, the minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Mário Augusto Oliveira, noted that Angola still has many areas without any telecommunications coverage, stressing that it is now open to national operators, and others, to provide reliable telecommunications services in the country, the continent and in the southern part of Europe.
The strategy will be focused on “competitive prices” to increase business in unconnected areas, “contributing to the reduction of info-exclusion in Angola and on the continent,” he noted.
Angosat-2, launched into orbit last October, has different band specifications (C, KU and KA) with distinct coverage zones: Africa and Europe, Southern Africa and part of Central and Eastern Africa, and Luanda.
With this initiative, national operators will have “a means of communication via satellite, thus allowing them to stop paying the rental of capacity to foreign satellites” and also increase the penetration of telecommunications services in the country.
It will also allow national telecom operators and the government to benefit from bandwidth with costs based on national currency, thus better managing their investments, the minister added.
Mário Augusto Oliveira also stressed that doors will be opened for the national telecommunications sector to provide services throughout the African continent and the southern part of Europe, also representing an opportunity for entrepreneurship in this sector and job creation.
“Especially for younger people, in areas linked to space technology, such as maintenance and installation of V-Sat systems and development of the software industry,” he continued.
“In the African context, telecom investments are fundamental requirements for economic growth and satellite connectivity has been used as a factor to support socio-economic development,” he also highlighted.
Last month, the presidential decree was published authorizing the commercial exploitation of the satellite and whose revenues are to accrue 40% to the National Treasury and 50% to the National Space Program Management Office.