Is The Next Frontier Of African Connectivity In The Sky?

By Warren Alberts, Chief Executive Officer at VAS-X

For telcos, rolling out new infrastructure involves a large upfront investment. And then there are the ongoing costs to keep that network operating. In a busy city centre, these costs are spread across a relatively large customer base concentrated in a small area. Here, a single tower can serve thousands of customers who use substantial amounts of data.

But in a remote community, the economics work differently. More infrastructure is needed to cover vast areas with a relatively small population. This reality causes the cost per potential customer to rise considerably. In fact, research from the GSMA suggests that in areas with low population densities, low-income levels and minimal infrastructure, it can cost up to two times as much to deploy new base stations. Furthermore, running networks in these locations is three times more expensive and the likely revenue can be as much as 10 times less than in an urban setting.

Given these realities, it’s unsurprising that in 2024 57% of urban residents in Africa used the internet compared with just 23% of rural residents. This is according to data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which also found that 14% of Africa’s population was still unable to connect to the Internet at all in 2024.

But things are changing as satellite communication technology becomes more mainstream. By delivering connectivity from above, satellites create new opportunities in places where conventional infrastructure is too expensive, too difficult or simply impractical to deploy.

Satellite communications have been around for decades, but were traditionally a specialist solution, used in places where connectivity was difficult or impossible – on ships at sea, for example, or to connect remote agricultural operations. That is changing as advances in satellite technology make it possible for satellites to be a part of mainstream telecoms infrastructure.

Traditional satellite broadband relied largely on geostationary satellites positioned around 36,000km above Earth. These satellites are large and complex, and their distance from Earth creates higher latency. Now, a growing number of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) constellations, including Starlink and Amazon Leo, are changing the equation. LEO satellites operate much closer to Earth, typically at altitudes of around 500–2,000km, significantly reducing latency and making satellite broadband faster and more responsive.

Rather than relying on a small number of large satellites, LEO networks use hundreds or thousands of smaller satellites working together to provide broad, continuous coverage.

For the people who spent years paying a lot of money for very bad connections, like guest houses and lodges in out-of-the-way locations or big mining expeditions working in some of the most remote places of Africa, this is a game changer.

While the potential is huge, it’s important to point out that we are still in the early days on this journey. Right now, satellite is still more expensive than fibre or mobile broadband but prices are steadily coming down. And I believe it won’t be long before satellite connectivity is part of our everyday lives in much the same way as a 4G or 5G signal.

Recognizing the growing demand for reliable connectivity, VAS-X has launched Starlink integration on our new OSS/BSS platform. This delivers a powerful solution that simplifies provisioning, billing, and customer management for Starlink services. Reach out to us to find out more: https://vas-x.com/contact-us