Liquid Telecom has partnered with French-based Eutelsat Communications to meet increasing demand for IP connectivity from its clients in Africa, who include national parks, out of town offices and remote mining and exploration companies.
The firm has leased Eutelsat’s EUTELSAT 7B satellite that joined EUTELSAT 7A at 7° East on July 16 and also transferred existing traffic at 7° East onto EUTELSAT 7B to take advantage of the performance of its African footprint and has plans to ramp-up further capacity over the coming 12 months. The new multi-transponder contract for satellite capacity runs until 2019.
According to Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom, “The strong features of EUTELSAT 7B, combined with our new teleport facilities in South Africa, equip us to meet growing demand from businesses for satellite-based IP connections. Our fibre and satellite networks complement each other, enabling our company to provide high-speed, cost-effective broadband services to remote areas where it is neither commercially viable nor practical to lay fibre.”
The deal will see the firm expand satellite operations in Africa after it just build a satellite hub at Teraco’s vendor-neutral earth station in South Africa to enable it route African traffic in Africa rather than backhauling it via Europe so that it can measurably increase connectivity speeds for its customers.
Liquid Telecom has integrated satellite as core to their vision of quickly and efficiently taking Internet connectivity to the parts of Africa that other infrastructure has forgotten, and Eutelsat will be its proud partner.
Rodney Benn, Eutelsat Regional Vice President for Africa, added: “As a longstanding partner of Liquid Telecom we are delighted to take our collaboration to a new level with this multi-year agreement that highlights the value of our enhanced resources at 7° East as they contribute to building a digital infrastructure across Africa.”
