Satellite operator Eutelsat has officially launched its Eutelsat OneWeb earth station in Angola, which it says brings OneWeb’s LEO satellite offering online for Angola and Central Africa.
The earth station, which was inaugurated in the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone on Thursday, serves as a satellite network portal to connect OneWeb’s LEO constellation to terrestrial networks in Angola, enabling OneWeb to offer B2B satellite broadband services to companies, public institutions and telcos.
The OneWeb earth station in Luanda has been in the works for four years. According to Space In Africa, the project was held up by practical challenges such as providing a dependable power supply and rolling out fibre connectivity to the site.
OneWeb signed a multi-year agreement with pan-African network operator Paratus Group in November 2022 to build the gateway in Luanda. Angola’s Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies, and Social Communication and the Angolan Communications Regulatory Authority (INACOM) granted a provisional licence last year to allow the portal to commence operations and ensure it didn’t interfere with the country’s terrestrial networks.
The Space In Africa report says the earth station project cost US$15 million in capex, with opex expected to reach US$5 million over the next ten years.
Eutelsat has also established OneWeb earth stations in Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.
Eutelsat said in a statement that the Luanda earth station “will play a critical role in supporting the priorities for inclusive economic growth and digital transformation.”
