Page 137 - SAMENA Trends - February-March 2021

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

dramatically,” said the company. Prior to attaining this about the impact of the satellite connectivity itself on
license, SpaceX had only received authorization to the health of humans an animals. "On our farm, we're
set up three ground stations in France, in Villenave- always online. My cows are linked up; my smart watch
d'Ornon, Gravelines and Saint-Senier-de-Beuvron. warns me when they're going to calve," he said. “But
However, initial plans to deploy the ground stations when you see the range of these antennas, there has
in Saint-Senier-de-Beuvron may in fact prove more to be some research.” Mayor Brault herself, however,
problematic than sending the satellites themselves did note that she was somewhat skeptical about the
into orbit. The village, which has a population of around cost effectiveness of the project, as well as some of
350, issued a decree to block the construction of nine Elon Musk’s additional projects. "When you hear that
‘radomes’, three-meter-tall globes that protect the he wants to implant a chip in people's brains, it's
antennas on the ground. The primary reason given was frightening," she said, referring to Musk’s Neuralink
the perceived health risk. "This project is totally new. project. Despite the village’s reservations, construction
We don't have any idea of the impact of these signals," company Sipartech says it will refile its deployment
said village mayor Noemie Brault. "As a precaution the request and the village will be unlikely to block it going
municipal council said no." The council argued that the ahead given current objections. Starlink’s satellite
decision was not a result of technophobia but rather broadband is already being trialed in the US and the UK,
due to a perceived lack of research on the biological as well as being available in some parts of Spain ahead
impact of the electromagnetic radiation. For example, of its official Spanish launch. A launch in Poland is also
another local farmer, Jean-Marc Belloir, noted that planned, with SpaceX taking orders for the service for
he uses connectivity for a huge variety of tasks on two weeks ago.
his farm, but, nonetheless, he still has reservations (February 23, 2021) totaltele.com

The parliament has passed the country’s 2021 Finance sold a 51% stake in the telecom operator to Maroc
Law authorizing the state to further reduce its holdings Telecom in 2010 and currently owes the majority
in several companies including Gabon Telecom (Moov shareholder around XAF10 billion (USD18.4 million).
Africa) during the financial year. The law specifies that Sources claim the Gabonese state will retain a holding
Gabon the assets in Gabon Telecom, banking group Union in the incumbent telco in order to monitor its progress.
Gabonaise de Banque and utility company SEEG will be
(February 8, 2021) Le Nouveau Gabon
reserved for Gabonese investors. The state previously

The Federal Network Agency (FNA) has awarded a of Germany, with the first sub-networks already in
nationwide 20-year 450MHz frequency license to operation. The company highlights that its 450MHz
critical infrastructure operator 450connect, which platform is standardized worldwide for machine-to-
announced that it will begin a national LTE-450 radio machine applications, and supports a crisis-proof and
Germany network expansion shortly. 450connect is backed highly available communications network with very
good area/in-building coverage via a relatively small
by a joint venture of four equal partners: Alliander, a
consortium of regional energy suppliers, E.ON and the number of radio locations, with its plan projecting
utility alliance 450 (consisting of a large number of deployment of 1,600 radio sites by end-2024. Network
mostly municipal utilities, energy and water suppliers access will be offered to companies and organizations
with the participation of the EnBW subsidiary Netze with critical communication requirements on a non-
BW). 450connect previously expanded regional discriminatory basis.
450MHz radio networks to cover more than 20% (March 11, 2021) commsupdate.com

The Ghanaian government has revealed plans to government had announced plans in October 2019 to
implement a SIM re-registration program as part of stage a re-registration program in the first half of 2020,
efforts to increase security and combat the criminal with subscribers required to present the new national
use of technology. Minister for Communications, ID card, but this was disrupted by the COVID-19
Ghana Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, informed the parliament’s pandemic. The Minister stressed that customers who
have already duly registered their SIMs will only have
Appointments Committee that the government has
decided to ’revisit the SIM registration regime, to do to verify the registration with their network operator.
and do it properly’, adding that previous efforts had (February 18, 2021) GhanaWeb
been hindered by the lack of suitable ID cards. The

137 FEB-MAR 2021