Satellite technology company Avanti Communications says it has completed the second phase of its project to build a new HYLAS 4 satellite gateway station and set it up in Dakar, Senegal.
The new Ka-band antenna is 9.2m in diameter, stands 14m and weighs 17,000kg. It has taken over 12 months to build in a state-of-the-art facility in the USA, before being shipped to Dakar.
Avanti says the new antenna system offers exceptional broadband support to deliver backhaul and large-scale connectivity for telecoms and government. The investment provides further support to the Digital 2025 initiative by providing investment, development of skills and delivery of connectivity for Senegal and its surrounding regions.
Avanti’s local gateway partner, Free in Senegal, will host and support the operations of the new gateway from its Tier III data centre facility in Diamniadio.
The new gateway will extend the coverage of Avanti’s HYLAS 4 satellite to Senegal and the surrounding West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Liberia and Ivory Coast. This will significantly increase access to high-speed satellite internet for the countries’ schools, hospitals and communities. In fact Kyle Whitehill, CEO at Avanti, says: “To date, Avanti has connected more than 1,000 villages and schools across Africa and we have ambitious plans to connect a further 10,000 sites over the next five years. This gateway is crucial to help us achieve that goal.”
Avanti’s carrier customers will also be able to extend their reach to rural areas and other semi-urban locations where terrestrial networks are currently limited or unreliable.
Avanti describes itself as the leading Ka-band high throughput satellite capacity partner to the communications industry across EMEA.
When it launched in April 2018, HYLAS 4 doubled Avanti’s capacity over EMEA. Using the latest Ka-band technology, it has 64 fixed beams serving Africa and Europe, as well as four independent steerable beams able to be steered anywhere visible on the Earth’s disk from 33.5˚W.