Oneweb, Q-KON Africa partner to distribute LEO satellite connectivity

OneWeb has announced a distribution partner agreement with Q-KON Africa, a specialist technology company that supplies solutions based on satellite, wireless and VoIP technologies, to offer broadband connectivity services in African countries.

Q-KON Africa connects “off-grid” locations through their satellite broadband service, Twoobii, to core networks throughout Africa reliably and effectively. The OneWeb LEO satellite network will give Q-KON Africa’s Twoobii customers access to high-speed, low-latency broadband to connect even the most rural or remote communities across several African countries. These include South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland (eSwatini), Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique.

This strategic five-year distribution agreement was finalized at the digital infrastructure event in South Africa this month, AfricaCom. It will enable Q-KON Africa to unleash the power of OneWeb’s network in order to provide vital internet service and Wi-Fi backhaul to connect schools, hospitals, civil government and other fixed enterprise and fintech services throughout the continent including banking, mining, and backhaul solutions.

This announcement is the latest effort for OneWeb to help bridge the digital divide across Africa through strong industry collaboration with local infrastructure and service providers. OneWeb remains on track to activate its coverage solutions in Africa, and elsewhere around the world, in 2023.

Ben Griffin, VP Mobility and AMEA at OneWeb, said: “At OneWeb, we believe that connection everywhere changes everything and that’s why we are thrilled to be partnering with the engineering experts at Q-KON Africa to further our mission to connect those hardest to reach to the internet. Q-KON Africa’s strong industry understanding, flexibility, agility and local support will help us see OneWeb’s LEO satellite network create opportunities to benefit unconnected and underconnected areas across Africa for today’s digital environment. This agreement is another example of OneWeb’s continued momentum, as we remain on track to activate coverage solutions in Africa and globally in 2023.”

Dawie de Wet, Group CEO of Q-KON Africa and Chief Engineer for Twoobii, said, “For us, OneWeb’s global lead and focus to deliver assured business grade, high-performance satellite services is the perfect option to expand our successful Twoobii Smart Satellite Services for Southern Africa. OneWeb’s technology innovations will deliver data speeds of 100Mbps and low latency of 70msec, which will enable us to further service the business, enterprise and financial markets. Leveraging emerging technologies to open new markets is in our DNA and we look forward to leading this new era in partnership with OneWeb.”