Eutelsat’s Konnect Africa and Vodacom Tanzania PLC have signed a service agreement for packaged services to bring connectivity to underserved regions of Tanzania, leveraging Eutelsat’s EUTELSAT KONNECT high-throughput satellite (HTS).

Following a successful Proof of Concept trial, Vodacom will commercialise services on the EUTELSAT KONNECT satellite under its brand, building out its service offer to customers previously unreached by its existing infrastructure, notably in the B2B and hospitality verticals. Furthermore, installation services will be undertaken by Konnect Africa on behalf of Vodacom.

Sitholizwe Mdlalose, Managing Director of Vodacom Tanzania PLC, commented on the agreement saying: “We are delighted to incorporate satellite to our suite of services, leveraging the state-of-the-art EUTELSAT KONNECT satellite to fulfill our mission to deliver connectivity to all regions of Tanzania. With Konnect, Vodacom will cover 100% of the country, connecting all regions, districts, and villages no matter how remote they are. Also, with this service, we will connect everyone; this includes areas which are not covered today, giving access to services up to 100Mbps”.

On the other hand, Philippe Baudrier, Chief Executive Officer of Konnect Africa, added: “We are excited to partner with Vodacom, a leading pan-African telecom operator, to extend the reach of its services in Tanzania. This agreement illustrates the unparalleled resources of our powerful EUTELSAT KONNECT satellite to satisfy the strong demand for connectivity in underserved regions of the African continent and marks another success in the development of our distribution capabilities following recent additions in Nigeria, South-Africa and DRC”.

To recall, Vodacom Tanzania was founded in 2000 and is part of the UK’s Vodafone Group. It is Tanzania’s leading telecommunications company providing a wide range of services for consumers and enterprises, including voice, data, messaging, financial services and enterprise solutions and counting over 15 million customers.