Satellite operator Eutelsat and its country partners will soon launch its OneWeb low-earth orbit (LEO) broadband service in South Africa.
The service aims to provide high-speed, low-latency Internet
access in regions where traditional connectivity might be challenging or
previously non-existent.
South Africa will be the first to offer the service on the
continent through the partnerships. The companies aim to expand the service to
over 35 countries in Africa.
OneWeb’s LEO services could appeal to business sectors
operating in remote parts of the country, such as retail healthcare,
government, mining, agriculture, tourism, and hospitality.
SpaceX’s Starlink product also uses LEO satellites. However,
it is offered to individual and business customers, while OneWeb is currently
sold exclusively to enterprises, businesses, and governments.
One significant advantage of LEO services compared to older
satellite Internet services that use geostationary (GEO) satellites is reduced
latency — making them more appropriate for applications like video and voice
calls.
OneWeb’s satellites operate at 1,200km above the Earth’s
surface, while Starlink’s orbit at 550km. Geostationary satellites operate at a
35,000km altitude.
Older satellite services have latencies over 600ms, making
applications like videoconferencing and online gaming challenging.
OneWeb’s constellation can support sub-100ms latencies,
while Starlink advertises between 20–40ms for areas near its ground stations.
Both of these are suited for latency-sensitive applications.
However, in countries where Starlink is not officially
available or does not have ground stations, communication relies on
inter-satellite links, which increases latency.
South Africans using the Starlink roaming service are
typically getting latencies between 100–300ms.
At this point in time, OneWeb will likely have better
latency than Starlink in South Africa, because SpaceX’s service is not
officially approved locally.
Therefore, it cannot roll out its ground stations, whereas
Eutelsat has already established ground station connectivity for OneWeb in
South Africa and two other African countries.
Eutelsat OneWeb has installed satellite network portals in
Angola, South Africa, and Mauritius.