RASCOM, is an intergovernmental, commercial satellite organization and the expression of the strong willingness of the African Governments to pool their efforts in a view to providing the African continent with telecommunications infrastructure based on space technology.
It is intended not only to give African national networks (countries) the opportunity to interconnect directly
without third party networks, but also to
supplement their existing telecom infrastructure by allowing them to provide services in isolated areas where there is no existing infrastructure, and complement the other technologies in order to provide a total solution to our users.
Besides the above objectives, the Mission of RASCOM is also to provide telecommunications services at affordable costs and supporting the creation of access to remote and underserved areas making universal service a reality in Africa.
RASCOM has a membership of 45 African countries including Tanzania. The headquarters are in Abidjan/Ivory Coast. We are here today for the meeting of Board of Directors of RASCOM following an invitation from TTCL which is one of the members of the Board of RASCOM.
To achieve its mission, RASCOM has established strategic partners in RascomStar-QAF Company, which has, under an Agreement, the responsibility to implement the RASCOM telecommunications satellite system dedicated to the African continent.
Our operating company, RascomStar-QAF is entrusted, among other responsibilities, with the task of the operation, maintenance and marketing of the services offered by the RASCOM satellites.
The first Pan African satellite was launched in December 2007 from Kourou/ French Guyana in South America and commercial operations started in 2008. Due to some technical problems it encountered after the launch which reduced its life time, it became necessary to quickly manufacture and launch a replacement satellite.
The current satellite is still in orbit providing services. We are already providing Band Lease Services (BLS) with the current satellite with a continental connectivity to more than 30 African countries to support the Pan African e-network for e-health and e-learning which is a project promoted by the African Union and the Indian Government.
Those who like sports will no doubt remember the under 17 football world cup which took place in Nigeria. These matches were transmitted live using our satellite.
On 4th August, 2010 the second Pan African satellite was launched from the same launch site. Those who are using the first satellite will have a seamless transfer to the replacement satellite.
All of this has been possible thanks to the partnership with other investors: Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAIP) and Thales Alenia Space (TAS) of France.
We also had financing from some development banks in Africa which are Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB), African Development Bank (AfDB), West African Development Bank (BOAD) and Central African Development Bank (BDEAC) which participated in this project in a form of loan.
The following services will be provided by the satellite:
Broadband Connectivity Services (BCS) which will make it possible to create direct connectivity among all African countries. We will also have Telephony Services (TES) which will extend access to remote and underserved areas in Africa using a special designed terminal supporting voice, data (internet) and radio/TV reception. Band Lease Services (BLS) will also be available. The satellite will also support the transmission of both radio and television broadcasting services.
The RASCOM satellite will be a possible partner for the NEPAD e-school project whose objective is to see internet connectivity in more than 600,000 schools in Africa. We are also working together with Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) and African Telecommunications Union (ATU) in the e-Post project which plans to use ICT in bringing new services within the postal network in Africa.
RASCOM is following with a lot of interests the developments taking place in Africa with the deployment of optical fiber around Africa and across regional networks. This is a great initiative which should be encouraged and the participation of Governments is testimony that the development of the ICT infrastructure is now being given the deserved attention and importance. But I am also convinced that deploying a number of different technologies like fiber and satellite will only complement each other. No technology can singly meet the demands of ICT.
It is a general agreement that Africa needs huge capacities to support development of ICT and to create affordability levels as volumes increase. We also agree that the focus for broadband development should not only be in major towns but should be extended into rural Africa to support a number of e-services. This is why all developments aimed at expanding infrastructure in the continent are most welcome.
We are very thankful to the Leaders of Africa who have continuously been very supportive of the RASCOM project through the African Union.
This is just the beginning
Already we are in the advanced stages in terms of the planning and design for the next generation satellites with very large bandwidths which will respond to the needs of Africa in terms of services, broadband requirement and cost to the users.
The launch event of the second Pan African satellite served to assure the African Continent of RASCOM’s long term commitment to its mission of creating capacities to support Connectivity in Africa and access to information and communication to underserved and remote areas in Africa. For more information on RASCOM, please visit the RASCOM Website
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