Yearbook 2017 African Satellite Communications Yearbook 2017 African Satellite Communications Yearbook 2017 Cover source: SES SpaceWatch: Plot 2009, Awka Street, Area 10, Suite GF 10, Noble Complex, P.O. Box 1680, Garki-Abuja-FCT. Tel: +234 803 647 1114, 905 248 1981, 802 449, 7730, 818, 688 5182 Email: [email protected] Website: www.spacewatchafrican.com Managing Director: Aliyu Bello Production Editor: Tonia Genald Head of Design: Marshal E.Akpan Cartography: Tope Ayomaya, Isaac Joshua Director: Lukman Bello Consultant: Idowu Samuel Marketing Manager :Patience Irabor Contents Introduction African Space Strategy 1 Government IT solution Digitizing Senegalese Economy 2 Bridging the connectivity divide in Africa 4 The return of low earth orbit satellite broadband 6 WRC-19 should address needs of satellite industry 8 The growing importance of Cloud Computing in ICT 10 Building smart, safe and sustainable cities 12 Is 2017 the gateway of future technological progress? 15 Assessing Internet control and surveillance in Nigeria 22 Understanding and delivering Internet access at sea 29 Reporting from the heart of disaster 31 33 The power of satellite broadband in emerging economies Altering telco's strategic identity 35 How Space Technology improves our lives 45 Exploring Communication Satellites to Bridge Digital Divide 49 The race to connect billions more things to the internet 52 Leveraging space science and technology for growth and sustainable development 56 Satellite Broadcasting Satellite remains the backbone of digital TV infrastructure 16 Beyond technology, infrastructure, and financial challenges of Digital Migration 19 DTH - Moving towards a new era 24 The DTH teleport - challenges and opportunities 26 African Space Agencies Priorities of Algerian Space Program 37 Nigeria's journey to the outer space 41 Roles of Technology Transfer in Egyptian Space Program 54 AFRICAN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS YEAR BOOK 2017 African Space Strategy Not all African countries are at the same approximately 1 billion people spread maps in a fraction of the time it would take technical readiness level and hence the over 30.3 million km2. However, the using laborious ground surveys. The use disparity in space expertise and over reliance on support outside of the of synthetic aperture radars or capabilities on the continent. continent could erode the African space stereoscopic imaging provides aspirations through an infiltration of topographic maps of the landscape. This Today, Africa faces major pressing external interests. capability enables city planners to keep issues: climate change impact, water up with urban sprawl and gives deployed s c a r c i t y , e n e r g y s h o r t a g e , There are abundant natural resources troops the latest maps of unfamiliar environmental stresses and food crisis, that can fuel economic growth and terrain. The latter is vitally important for which affect citizens, business and the address social challenges if harnessed peacekeeping missions in Africa. community at large. Space technology in a sustainable manner. In addition, is useful in constituting factual, precise large rural communities in Africa are In Africa, navigation and positioning is and updated information. sparsely populated and their needs can the main element of the international air be supported and provided for by a traffic management system providing According to MO Ibrahim Foundation, suite of space products and services. worldwide navigation coverage to between 2015 and 2050, Africa's youth Also, Africa's strategic location with a support all phases of flight. With will almost double, from 230 to 452 unique landmass and latitude coverage appropriate augmentation systems, million, yet the fastest growing African is suitable for astronomical and space navigation and positioning satellites will economies have not created enough physics facilities. enable gate-to-gate navigation and all jobs for youth. In 2015, 60% of Africans weather capabilities for suitably were under 25 years old. In 2016, the In the case of natural disaster equipped aircraft. With more precise average age of African presidents is 66, management such as floods, remote navigation tools and accurate landing while the average median age of the sensing from space can provide data systems flying do not only become safer, continent's population is 20. Of the 25 for the whole cycle of information for but also more efficient by reducing fastest growing economies in the world flood prevention and mitigation, pre- delays, diversions and cancellation of between 2004 and 2014, ten are African. flood assessment, response during the flights. Nearly 15 million young Africans were flood, recovery, after the flood and More African countries have a space unemployed in 2015. In 2015, four weather newscasts. Timely satellite agency. However, a growing number of African countries featured in the global imagery and communications links in governments have shifted the top ten for the highest terrorism levels: hard-to-reach places can help stem supervision of their space program to Nigeria, Somalia, Egypt, Libya. Between catastrophic economic and human Trade/Industry as part of an overall one-third and a half of the tertiary losses. strategy to prioritize space applications educated populations of Kenya, In countries where the failure of a over space science and research. Space Uganda, Liberia, Mozambique and harvest may mean the difference science and technology has and Ghana leave their country. between bounty and starvation, continues to contribute to sustainable satellites have helped planners development and offers many benefits to This digital revolution of the 21st century manage scarce resources and head off mankind. is based on the Internet, which is the potential disasters before insects or revolution's driving force. Without a high- other blights could wipe out an entire Depending on their mission, satellites speed Internet connection or at least a crop. For example, in agricultural have different orbits. Weather and mobile telephone, the citizen is excluded regions near the fringes of the Sahara communication satellites are placed in from today's information society. In zone, scientists used satellite images to geostationary orbits (altitude of some countries, the essential role of this predict where locust swarms were 36,000km) above the equator, from tool is well understood and the right to breeding and were able to prevent the which they have a constant gaze on the means of communication and to locusts from swarming, thus saving same hemisphere of the Earth by broadband Internet access is spoken of large areas of cropland. completing one orbit around the Earth as a fundamental right. every 24 hours. Remote sensing data can help us The Internet arrived in sub-Saharan manage scarce resources by showing Other satellites are placed in Low Earth Africa from the early 1990s onwards: us the best places to drill for water or oil. Orbits (LEO), which complete on Kenya in 1993, Uganda and Nigeria in Remote sensing satellites have average one orbit around the earth every 1995, Togo in 1996. In most of those become a formidable weapon against 100 minutes. Because the Earth rotates countries, Internet connection began the destruction of the environment in the plane of the orbit, such a satellite with analogue telephone lines. Yet because they can systematically eventually covers the whole Earth. Such Internet in Africa is still limited by a lower monitor large areas to assess the orbits are used for remote sensing, and penetration rate when compared to the spread of pollution and other damages. navigation and positioning applications. rest of the world, and overall available Such monitoring capabilities are critical The development of the region in the long bandwidth indicates that Africa is for the long-term sustainable use of our run will depend not only on the circulation sometimes way behind the "digital scarce resources. of persons but also on the circulation of divide". Remote sensing technology is also information. In a world that claims to be a Africa has a spatial market that is helping African mapmakers. With global one, good information traffic is one characterised by a population of satellite imagery, they can produce of the most important concerns. 1 AFRICAN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS YEAR BOOK 2017 Digitizing Senegalese Economy In Africa, Senegal is classified 1st African country for the weight of Internet in the economy (I-PIB), due in particular to a very good international connectivity and a good domestic network of transmission. This project of deployment of the national backbone provides high-speed coverage which makes Internet and its associated services, more and more accessible to the Senegalese citizens. Fatou Kamara says a project Start-up Sénégal, incubates100 companies a year, and a billion CFA has been devoted to the promotion of entrepreneurship. Fatou Kamara Brand and Digital Director Expresso Sénégal In Africa, Senegal is classified 1st African ecosystem”.The total costs of these reforms and country for the weight of Internet in the the projects over the period 2016/2025 that this economy (I-PIB) estimated at 3.3%, due in plan aims, are of 1,361 billion F CFA and 300 particular to a very good international million; 73% will be financed by the private sector, connectivity and a good domestic network of 17% by the public and 10% in PPP mode. transmission. The Senegal GDP shows that 91% of its value This plan will offer real digital opportunities in the are