A remote village in Nigeria can now boast of high-speed internet connectivity following the link-up between its solar-powered base station with low earth orbit satellites in SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
This follows last year’s commercial agreement between Africa Mobile Networks (AMN) and Starlink to connect AMN’s mobile network base stations with high-speed, low-latency broadband services through Starlink, reports Africa Business Communities.
The link-up means AMN will be able to offer 3G and 4G as well as 2G internet services, with 5G services expected before the end of 2024.
The first community to make use of the AMN/Starlink internet connectivity is Yobu, according to Space in Africa. While only 80 km from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, it sometimes takes hours to reach the village because of bad road conditions.
The AMN solar-powered mobile base station has been in operation since 2018, but it has only recently been able to make use of Starlink’s internet connectivity.
“Yebu community was left behind and blind but the coming of Africa Mobile Networks in 2018 has made us achieve a lot of things like police division stations, 24 hours solar light and steady communication all over the world. Before then there was nothing like those things listed,” said one community member.
Since the base station was built in the community in November 2018, AMN has processed more than 9 million voice minutes in Yebu.
The company has deployed more than 4 000 base stations across Africa and Latin America, and it is installing more sites in Nigeria, DRC, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Benin and Rwanda in 2024.
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