MTN South Africa, in partnership with low Earth-orbit satellite network company Lynk Global, says it has concluded a successful trial of voice calling through satellite-to-phone technology. The mobile network provider hopes this can help its push to get more rural South Africans connected.
MTN nibbles at StarLink’s lunch
The two companies successfully carried out Africa’s first satellite-to-phone call from Vryburg, in the North West province. The companies leveraged LEO satellites, which generally orbit Earth at altitudes of 160km and 2000km, resulting in orbital periods between 90 minutes and a few hours. This means that the technology is best suited for any task or service that needs rapid data communication, or any area that needs frequent re-visits, like distant and disconnected rural areas.
“The call in Vryburg enables MTN and Lynk Global to test voice call quality and SMS capabilities over a LEO satellite connection. The technical trial was part of our work to find potential solutions to the challenges of providing coverage in underserviced, rural and remote areas,” said MTN South Africa Chief Executive Officer Charles Molapisi.
The low orbit also results in lower latency since the signals don’t have to travel as far, resulting in faster responses. Direct satellite-to-phone communication also makes mass announcements of weather, health, or humanitarian crises quicker.
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When people think of low-orbit satellite networks, they think of Starlink. But, despite its popularity, the company still doesn’t enjoy a monopoly on the highly competitive satellite internet market. Outside of political conflicts of interest, other factors are making Starlink’s mission harder. For instance, while Starlink has been successful in making low-orbit satellite internet more accessible, the endeavour remains expensive, making adoption challenging.
Yes, satellite internet is still the best option for getting internet connectivity to remote areas, but the cost of the technology and consequently, the service, makes it unviable for low-income communities. This leaves an opening for small mobile network providers to team up with nascent satellite internet technology providers to create services that are financially competitive with Starlink and the like. Because of this, MTN‘s next plans will likely be to expand the scope of this experiment from calling and SMSing to internet connection.
