New research has revealed that wireless industry efforts to take massive amounts of additional spectrum – amounts that have been shown to be in excess of actual requirements – would undercut African economies, and threaten social and safety-of-life services by disrupting mission-critical satellite services for key applications delivered throughout the continent.
New research has revealed that Satellite services delivered via the C-band spectrum will spur socio-economic development in Africa. The study, which was conducted by international consultancy firm Euroconsult and commissioned by the European Space Agency, claims that wireless industry efforts to take massive amounts of additional spectrum would undercut African economies, and threaten social and safety-of-life services by disrupting mission-critical satellite services for key applications delivered throughout the continent.
The report notes that C-band communications benefit from two physical characteristics that make it central to Africa’s environment: resistance to “rain fade” and availability of wide beams.
According to the report, Euroconsult examined three country markets representative of the diverse economies of southern, western and central Africa, and found that – in addition to the millions of consumers who rely on C-band television – the wireless, banking and finance, energy production, civil aviation, and government sectors were particularly reliant on satellite networks using C-band spectrum, which is prized for its reliability and scope of coverage.
C-band communications are being represented by wireless manufacturers from developed countries to be of declining importance, but that is clearly not true in Africa, most of Asia, Latin America and other regions where conditions are fundamentally different than in South Korea, Japan and Sweden, the report claims.
The study found that Nigeria, DRC and Angola have recently recorded increasing investment that has contributed to a boosting of their economies with a key segment being banking. C-band satellite connectivity facilitates the opening of new branches. This in turn favors banking inclusion by giving access to banking services for millions of existing and new customers. The use of C-band capacity for video distribution and contribution links will also be very important for the rollout of digital terrestrial television, which will accelerate in the next few years in most of Africa.
