Page 65 - SAMENA Trends - August-September 2025

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Senegal to Roll Out Satellite Internet Nationwide This Year

Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye announced in New York
that his government signed an agreement with a satellite operator
to deliver full nationwide internet coverage by the end of 2025. The
announcement took place at Unstoppable Africa, part of the Global
Africa Business Initiative. “We signed with a satellite operator so
that before the end of this year we can cover the entire territory
with perfect redundancy for higher-quality connectivity,” Faye said.
He stressed his government’s commitment to reducing digital
inequalities. Senegal has already deployed about 6,000 kilometers
of fiber optic infrastructure. However, large “white zones” remain
unserved. The president said the new contract, for which all
administrative procedures are completed, will target these areas.
The initiative aligns with the government’s New Deal Technologies,
Senegal’s digital roadmap centered on expanding connectivity.
Beyond infrastructure, Faye highlighted new projects including a
national innovation hub, the GovNum digital governance initiative, pending regulatory approval. The rollout of satellite internet could
and legislative tools such as the Startup Act and Senegal Connect significantly reshape Senegal’s digital landscape, especially in
Startup, designed to boost the tech ecosystem. The government has rural areas where access remains limited. A July 17 survey by the
not revealed the identity of the chosen satellite operator. Starlink, national telecom regulator ARTP and the national statistics agency
SpaceX’s satellite internet provider, appears as a likely candidate. ANSD found that only 3% of rural households have home internet,
Starlink previously announced plans to launch in Senegal in 2025, compared with 43.8% in Dakar. The expansion, if completed,
offering high-speed satellite internet. On its website, the company could support both inclusion and economic modernization, while
opened preorders starting at $9 for reservation of equipment, strengthening Senegal’s ambition to become a regional digital hub.

Viasat, Space42 Poised to Launch D2D Venture

Satellite Services (MSS) will be able to evolve “to a 5G network
environment” through Equatys. It will be able to support well over
100MHZ of harmonized MSS spectrum already allocated across
more than 160 markets, with a target of rolling out commercially
within three years. Other than that timeline, the companies did
not provide any financial details or commitments. The duo signed
a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in March 2025, which
advanced a previous commitment to work on technical and
commercial studies into an agreement to form a jointly-owned
infrastructure company. In operating a so-called towerco model,
the venture will offer wholesale D2D services to third parties. They
also pointed to advantages for operators to grow profitability, allow
governments to own and operate infrastructure to maintain national
UAE-based spacetech company Space42 partnered up with data sovereignty and allow local space industries to participate in
satellite player Viasat to form Equatys, a jointly-held entity focused space and ground technology development and manufacturing.
on enabling global direct-to-device (D2D) services. The pair stated Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of Viasat, said Equatys will
Equatys represents the industry’s first space tower company “uniquely make possible a shared multi-orbit network of scale with
model, implementing shared space and ground non-terrestrial- standards based open architecture to address the significant D2D
network (NTN) infrastructure, with the goal of lowering capital and next-generation MSS market opportunity”. Vodafone and AST
costs and improving spectrum utilization. As well as “uniting” SpaceMobile unveiled plans for a similar joint venture satellite
satellite and terrestrial networks, those planning to launch Mobile business at MWC 2025, targeting launch next year.

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