Abu Dhabi-based YahSat’s broadband service YahClick has expanded its service to Pan-African coverage through a partnership with iSat Africa. The agreement extends YahClick’s service to Nigeria, Zambia, the Congo and East Africa.
Data and research suggests that revenues from fixed satellite data services in Africa are expected to grow at an average rate of 15.8 per cent per year between 2020 and 2029.
“Linking with iSat Africa also spotlights the massive opportunity the growth of HTS capacity will have on the Sub-Saharan African market, especially when it comes to unlocking high demand flexibility in applications such as backhaul or community WiFi,” said YahClick.
The pair, in a statement, stated, “The new partnership will support iSAT Africa, a Pan-African network operator present in 12 markets, to deliver connectivity solutions for Mobile Cellular Backhaul (CBH) services, business applications, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, as well as provide connectivity to remote sites, including mines. The connectivity solutions will be provided over YahClick’s high-throughput satellite (HTS) Ka-band capacity to deliver high-speed broadband solutions, with service plans of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps), reaching and serving remote locations.”
Farhad Khan, YahClick’s CEO, said, “This partnership with iSAT Africa is another step in our plans for further growth and expansion across Africa. With our existing strong presence in these countries, our partnership with iSAT Africa will enhance our reach into the unserved and underserved markets. We look forward to enabling greater connectivity for people and businesses across Africa during the upcoming months.”
Eutelsat’s post results presentation and analyst discussion on October 28th was led by the satellite operators’ CFO, Sandrine Téran. She told callers that a merger with another operator was “not a problem if the price is right”.
She told analysts that Eutelsat, the world’s third-largest satellite operator, believed it had a solid, stand-alone strategy and added, “but we would welcome consolidation if it was a good opportunity for Eutelsat and its shareholders. M&A could be a source of substantial capex and opex synergies in our industry.”
There are, however, only a limited number of target businesses in Europe that could be potential merger candidates. Telenor’s satellite division is one. Hispasat in Madrid is another (and Eutelsat has long coveted Hispasat); however, the big prize would be arch-rival SES.
Téran told analysts that a merger faced no special political issues other than the Golden Share veto power held by Luxembourg’s government in SES. But Téran stated that she did not see anything in the industry that would be a hurdle other than the usual antitrust examinations.
Either way, it is a problem a new CEO at Eutelsat is going to have to handle, whether it really is the much talked-about merger with another operator, or either accepting or fending off a take-over bid from the likes of Patrick Drahi.
CEO Rodolphe Belmer is leaving Eutelsat in January.
