Page 39 - EngineerIT AugustSeptember Issue 2026

SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY

The good news, says Whitehill, is that satellites change the calculation, He concludes, “You don’t phone
because the coverage already exists. He adds, “A terminal can connect a a mobile operator and ask which
village, school, enterprise or mobile site without extending a terrestrial route cabinet your service is delivered from
over the full distance.” and which fibre strand is coming to
your house. You’re more likely to say,
Avanti was founded on similar logic 25 years ago. Its founders believed ‘I need a product that does this.’
emerging markets could keep falling behind because conventional operators
would struggle to justify investment in rural and remote areas. “The challenge is no longer simply
connecting communities that were
“The only realistic chance you had of getting total coverage across a previously isolated. It is keeping pace
continent would be when the assets were in space,” Whitehill says. “Whether with a continent whose demand for
it was Johannesburg or a rural part of the Eastern Cape, a satellite provides connectivity is growing faster than
coverage for that area.” traditional deployment models were
designed to support.
Around 75% of Avanti’s capacity is dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa. It also
bears mentioning that Whitehill doesn’t present satellite as a replacement “Satellite technology can already
for mobile or fibre networks. Satellite providers still need operators with provide coverage across vast
established customer relationships, billing systems, retail networks and areas where laying fibre or building
local distribution. conventional terrestrial infrastructure
would be prohibitively expensive.
“The satellite industry can’t do that without the support of a mobile operator Mobile operators bring something
because the mobile operator has the distribution capability,” he says. “The equally important: spectrum,
opportunity is to find an economic model with ourselves and mobile operators customer relationships, distribution
where we can work together.” networks, billing platforms and
decades of operational experience.
Whitehill’s view of the next decade is deliberately practical. Customers should
not need to know whether their service is delivered through geostationary “Ultimately, we should collectively be
satellites, low-Earth-orbit networks, fibre or terrestrial mobile infrastructure. looking to the stars.”

39 | EngineerIT August/September 2026