The Big Picture: UHDTV and Ultra High-Resolution Systems VVVolVolVolVol o6 o6 66l l. .No. NoNo. No78 N N 55 oo5.. 1 February 2018 2020 AFRICA Nigeria SPECIAL FEATURE Africa Magic Channels Aand ne wthe le ariseder aofn dNollywood player in the aerospace industry C O N T E N T S Vol. 8 No. 1 Still on rural connectivity Editor in-chief Aliyu Bello BBC launches Arabic news channel in HD exclusively on Arabsat Executive Manager Tonia Gerrald IoT connectivity via satellite SA to the editor in-Chief Ngozi Okey A leading women entrepreneurs in the Head, Application Services M. Yakubu ICT sector Editorial/ICT Services John Daniel Usman Bello Euroconsult forecasts a four-fold increase in satellite demand over the next ten years Alozie Nwankwo Juliet Nnamdi What will 2020 bring for the satellite Industry? Client Relations Sunday Tache Iridium latest launch and the future Lookman Bello of the mobile satellite phone industry Safiya Thani Earth Observation innovator, Satellite Vu opens office in UK Marketing Offy Pat Elon Musk’s turning moments Tunde Nathaniel Wasiu Olatunde UAE Space Agency launches NewSpace Innovation Programme Media Relations Favour Madu NCC releases list of authorised space Khadijat Yakubu stations in Nigeria Zacheous Felicia Finance Folarin Tunde NIGCOMSAT chair, Arc. Kazaure visits ground station Africa Magic Channels and the rise of Nollywood Space Watch Magazine is a publication of The Big Picture: UHDTV and Ultra Communication Science, Inc. All correspondence should High-Resolution Systems be addressed to editor, space Watch Magazine. Abuja office: Plot 2009, Awka Street, UTC Building, GF 11, Area 10, Garki, Abuja, Nigeria Tel: 234 80336471114, 07084706167, email: [email protected] LEGAL CONSULTANTS Idowu Oriola & Co. 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Cover source Wipro Infotech 1 Editorial Still on rural connectivity At the end of 2018, there were about 3.9 technology, with WiMAX used to between the Network Operator and billion unconnected people, out of 4.4 distribute the signal to the subscribers. satellite operator allow satellite to billion that were unconnected in 2014, This allowed citizens to be more c o m p e t e w i t h o t h e r b a c k h a u l although the subject of providing informed about announcements technologies. connectivity to rural and remote areas has posted on government websites that Typical services needed in rural areas been on the agenda of the ITU for were related to their daily lives, and that can be facilitated by decades.In fact, the debate to cover rural providing access to several secondary telecommunications networks include areas has been active in the late schools.In order to expand rural eHealth, eCommernce, eGovernment, in nineteenth century ub the days of c o n n e c t i v i t y, a s y s t e m f o r addition to environment monitoring and telegraph and the early twentieth century eProcurement was designed over low farming. In rural areas, patients lack when telephony emerged. end smartphones for small scale quality healthcare. As a result, retailers in the Kgautswane rural area telemedicine represents a suitable Still, many people in rural areas are not of South Africa, allowing dwellers to solution to address this problem. In rural aware of the potential of the internet in perform stock replenishment without areas, primary health centers can be changing their daily lives, and some have having to be displaced to an urban overburdened with daily visits while the even not heard of it. The lack of digital center 70 km away. It also allowed the referral to secondary and tertiary health literacy is indeed a barrier to internet providers to schedule bulk delivery to centers does not use technology to adoption. Internet has become a specific delivery points closer to the accurately transfer patent information. commodity that users should access to on retailers, where the payments can be In some scenarios, social workers helps the basis of need. In order to provide this made in cash upon delivery. patients in a rural area communicate with access regardless of costs and business For Botswana, a cattle farming country, doctors remotely using multimedia aspects, Government intervention might RFID technology is used to identify technology relying wired broadband be necessary in several places, cattle animals and herders. The device supported by wireless connectivity in hard especially in rural areas. data is stored on a mobile extension to reach areas, supporting telemedicine Although the technology is different, this officer personal computer, and then applications in rural areas. In some scenario was similar to what happened transferred to a central database instance, ultrasound imaging was historically for railroads, postal mail, and containing all the information on cattle performed in rural areas by trained non- the fixed telephone networks. Therefore, and their owners. Internet connectivity physician personnel, and the results were Africa can learn from history to develop a permits the online transferred to the transferred to a cloud system where the policy for the future. database. physicians could perform diagnosis in an So far, policies for providing broadband In Zambia, Sunflower farming was urban hospital. access need to be reached and initiated in the Macha rural area after With the advent of the IoT, sensor implemented through collaboration the introduction of internet to the village measurements can be performed by between various stakeholders, including and its surroundings. The network was Body Area Networks in rural areas; they Government, policy makers, especially based on WiFi mesh for local access, are transmitted to smart mobile phones, the regulatory authority, business players with two VSAT terminals providing using Bluetooth low energy, where they such as equipment manufacturers and backhaul connectivity. The network can be stored and transmitted to the cloud telecom operators, service and content was also used for eLearning, whenever network connectivity is providers, and citizens. enhancing the procedures of the local available. Cloud storage can allow remote In order to increase internet adoption in health system, and for other personal diagnosis and patient monitoring, rural areas, users need to see the benefits uses such as email, chatting by the possibly with the help of “health ontology”. provided for their daily lives, which will inhabitants. In the rural area of Maseru, increase adoption, and eventually make Lesotho, “eKiosks” were deployed to Farming is another application area for the business case viable for operators. provide basic internet connectivity, with rural zones that can benefit from internet T h i s c a n b e d e m o n s t r a t e d the WiBACK system, based on WiFi connectivity, or even from local network througheEducation, eCommerce, and mesh networking relaying the traffic to connectivity. For instance, IoT devices eGovernment. reach the backhaul network. can be used to perform precision irrigation In Cameroon, a Multipurpose Community in areas with limited availability of Telecenters (MCTs) project was launched Satellite communications are irrigation water. RFID sensors can also be by the government in Cameroon. The overcoming the traditional challenges used to track and monitor livestock. project was aimed at providing internet that prevented them previously from and telecommunications access to the being a competitive backhaul solution. In addition, the deployment of automated local community. The telecentres are Indeed, there are several reasons that teller machines (ATMs) and the use of connected via VSAT technology. A survey allow satellite to compete for backhaul point of sale (POS) devices often poses revealed that most people use the connectivity. Mainly, the satellite numerous challenges in rural areas. One Multipurpose Community Telecenters for operator can act as a service provider of the most important challenges is the education, eEducation, eHealth, for the Mobile Network Operator, and lack of reliable connectivity so that the eGovernment, and eCommerce thus the satellite launch and transactions with the users' cards can be purposes.. management costs do not affect their performed in real-time. Internet connectivity to the Dwesa-Cwebe directly, as long as the costs of rural area in South Africa was via VSAT bandwidth leasing and/or of SLA 5 APPOINTMENTS appointed the Managing Director of the its first employees. Enrico will maintain his Facebook appoints Intelligence (UK) division of Airbus Defence capacity of TSC President. Enrico brings a Regional Director for and Space with responsibilities for wealth of experience including operations reshaping and developing the UK Earth leadership, engineering and technology Middle East, Africa and Observation business in line with changing knowledge, financial analysis and business markets and technologies. Under his planning proficiency. Turkey leadership, the business has evolved and achieved stability, growth and profitability. Derya Matraº has been appointed as Andrew Browne Joins Regional Director of Facebook in the Middle East, Africa