Every square inch of Africa is covered by satellite bandwidth, but restrictive telecom policies stop this from supporting Africa’s development. There are 48 satellites with coverage, pointing 36 Ku-band frequency beams and 28 C-band beams over Africa which can be accessed to provide international and national voice calls, broadcasting, data and Internet services.

 Africa’s vast inaccessible terrain and insufficient energy infrastructure makes it difficult and costly to roll out wire-line networks and fibre optic links in heartland areas. Low-cost satellite-based Internet therefore responds to the access crisis in the region, and provides a potentially affordable opportunity for connectivity. Until recently PTO’s have been the main users of satellite technologies, but some liberalisation is slowly opening up avenues for new licensed service providers to compete for broadcasting, data and lastly voice traffic (see VSAT Licensing Status map).  But even where private or public satellite services are allowed, hefty license fees are levied; or are only allowed for monopoly or duopoly operators. It is clear that policies for low cost ‘consumer grade’ satellite internet access have not yet been developed in many nations.

 To overcome the restrictions on access to bandwidth there needs to be an ‘Open Skies’ policy in order to achieve Africa development goals. Then the conditions for economies of scale will result in lower prices and affordable subscriptions to community access points, SME’s, governments and households.

 Beam strength (dBW), antenna size (m) and cost

 Older satellite technologies required massive, costly earth stations. New technologies use smaller, lower cost antennas (‘very small aperture terminals’) accessing higher-powered bandwidth with lower energy requirements. Stronger satellite beams require smaller dishes (or antennas), which lowers the cost of equipment and running expenses to the end user. 

	VSAT & the Status of Teleaccess   Prohibitions on VSAT hamper the roll out of telecom infrastructure, and high license fees make VSAT inaccessible for most of the smaller institutions which comprise 90% of the private and non-governmental sector in Africa. But unhindered, economies of scale and the mass deployment of high bandwidth VSATs will have a significant development effect on businesses, ISP’s, NGO’s, provincial and local governments, schools and universities that for the time being are constrained by slow and generally unreliable dial-up connections.
	VSAT Licensing Status  VSAT liberalisation allows some groups other than incumbent telco’s  to establish satellite services, but with persistent restrictions. This  map shows where VSAT services are under monopoly, or have  been partially liberalised. Receive-only licences are those where  VSAT terminals can receive broadcast or data signals, but cannot  send signals. Partially and fully liberalised does not reflect the  expansion of an integrated national network as incumbents are not  yet obliged to interconnect with new licensees.
	Regulatory Status  Telecom policy reform and regulatory independence are essential to attract investment into the expansion of ICT infrastructure in Africa. This map shows those countries which have separated the powers of the policy makers, the regulatory bodies and the incumbent service providers: though necessary conditions for improved communications, these are by no means sufficient to ensure regulatory autonomy and the ability to manage competition, such as interconnection between different service providers, yet.

 Conception, research and design: Heloise Emdon, Paul Hamilton, Geoff Daniell, Gilbert Adanusa, David Hartshorn, Martin Jarrold and Mike Jensen with the support of IDRC and CATIA. Translation: Jean-Pierre Steck.

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