Africa Mobile Networks (AMN) has entered into a commercial agreement to use Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of low Earth orbit satellites, to connect base stations of AMN’s mobile network to high-speed, low-latency services, to serve even the most remote and rural communities in the world.
AMN said it is committed to its vision of a fully connected world, where no community of significant size is deprived of telecommunications services for the social, educational, and economic benefit of the population.
AMN has made significant progress towards this vision, with telecommunications services now accessible to more than 10 million people in nearly 4,000 communities in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa as a direct result of the AMN towers.
Its own Radio Access Network (RAN) technology enables the provision of 2G (GSM) and 3G (HSPA+) or 4G (LTE) services from a single radio node installed on its low-cost base stations.
This latest development brings that vision closer than ever and enables AMN to bring 3G and 4G services to rural communities with high-quality service and deliver ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth and volumes of data requested by subscribers while remaining economically viable.
“Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency link, combined with AMN’s flexible RNA, allows us to deliver 3G and 4G – and later 5G – services to remote communities around the world.
“We are already making rapid progress in Nigeria – where we have over 1,000 operational base stations today – to connect more unconnected communities, and we are seeing a huge appetite for data services in many of these places.
“By collaborating with Starlink, we can support significant growth both in terms of the number of sites and services offered,” said Mike Darcy, CEO of AMN Group.
AMN’s ARN is a flexible multi-carrier and multi-technology (2G/3G/4G) radio node that can operate with up to 5 simultaneous carriers in 2G+3G or 2G+4G configuration.
It can support up to 5,000 subscribers per node, or up to 15,000 subscribers on AMN’s 20m towers with 3 sectors. AMN manufactures RNA in the UK and has recently expanded its production line to manufacture approximately four thousand units per year.
“We are excited to work with AMN on our shared vision of a fully connected world,” said Chad Gibbs, SpaceX vice president for Starlink business operations.
“Today’s announcement of Africa’s first cellular network to use Starlink for the backhaul is an important step that will bring high-speed connectivity to millions of people on the continent for the first time. especially in rural and isolated communities.”
AMN plans to deploy Starlink terminals at sites in Nigeria during 2023, as part of a larger project to connect 700 additional rural communities before the end of the year.
It currently operates over 1000 sites in Nigeria and plans to increase this number to 2000 by the end of the second quarter of 2024.
In addition to the 10,000 base stations in Africa, AMN recently launched services in Latin America and will offer services in Asia from 2024.
