Vox is extending its satellite offering in SA having announced a partnership with Q-KON to deliver various satellite solutions to enterprise customers from Eutelsat OneWeb.
Across the world, and most notably in Africa, rural areas have tended to have low network coverage levels as telecom operators have avoided investing because of the expense involved. Providers would rather invest in towns and cities with big populations who are major consumers of communications services.
This is one of the main reasons for the rapid rise of low earth orbit (LEO) satellite services such as Elon Musk’s Starlink and Eutelsat OneWeb.
As is the case with its competitors, Vox is selling the benefits of LEO satellite technology, including reduced latency, better network reliability and higher data transfer speeds.
“With robust connectivity assured, Vox customers can use the Twoobii-OneWeb offering as either a frontline connectivity solution, or as a backup to legacy terrestrial systems,” the operator said.
Frontline connectivity solutions are technologies and strategies that ensure reliable communication and data access in challenging, often remote, or rapidly changing environments.
Vox and Q-KON say they are delivering on the increased demand for LEO connectivity within the region.
The Johannesburg-based information technology and infrastructure provider has signed up as a OneWeb partner with Q-KON, provider of Twoobii Super Smart Satellite Solutions to enterprise customers.
The main reason for the growth in LEO satellite services is the declining cost. Transporting equipment into space is now much cheaper than it was decades ago, in part because rockets are now reusable — as demonstrated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
In terms of connectivity, the two disadvantages with traditional satellite technology have to do with latency (the time it takes for signals to reach their destination) and limited bandwidth (the amount of data that can travel through a signal). Fibre and mobile are therefore seen as superior forms of access.
Low-altitude satellites offer faster speeds, mainly because they are closer to the ground. By launching many such satellites, creating a so-called constellation, operators have been able to cover the main challenges associated with the technology. Thanks to these advances, operators predict that some functions of ground base stations and cellphone towers will be taken into the sky.
Vox and Q-KON said their long-standing relationship had enabled “a previously underserviced sector of the market to start using reliable voice services over satellite, in addition to the enterprise services with defined quality of service configurations”.
Twoobii-OneWeb is a satellite connectivity service managed by engineering firm Q-KON.
“Securing Vox as a Twoobii-OneWeb reseller represents a valuable extension of our existing partnership and being able to provide world-class LEO services to enterprise customers throughout Southern Africa further strengthens the business case for satellite connectivity across all sectors,” said Hendrik Bezuidenhout, an account director at Q-KON.
“OneWeb LEO services will further enhance the connectivity options available to our B2B customers.”
News of the partnership comes a few days after MTN reported successful trials of the first direct mobile phone via satellite in Africa.
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