Luanda - The provision of telecommunications services to more than 150 remote locations in the country, within the scope of Angosat-2, constituted one of the outstanding milestones in the Telecommunications and Information Technologies sector, in 2023.

By Amélia de Sousa, ANGOP journalist

The satellite, launched in Baikanour, Kazakhstan, on October 12, 2022, covers the entire African continent, a significant part of Southern Europe and almost the entire Southern African region, constituting a good source of revenue for the country.

Authorization for the commercial exploitation of the new Angolan satellite, which replaced Angosat-1, which failed in 2017, was given by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, through Presidential Order No. 11/23, of 23 January.

After more than six months of operational and service tests, the Angolan satellite is in the commercial phase and is being used to provide telecommunications services to national operators, as well as companies in other sectors of the national economy, such as the oil and diamond sectors.

The satellite will allow national telecommunications operators and the Government to benefit from bandwidth capabilities, with costs based on national currency, to better manage investments and adjust them to the end user's reality.

Angosat-2, whose services are being distributed in several communes and municipalities, will increase business in totally disconnected regions and contribute to reducing digital exclusion in Angola and the African continent.

Revenues from Angosat-2 will go to the National Space Program Management Office (50%) and the National Treasury (40%). The remaining 10% will go to the Social Support Fund for Communications workers.

With a useful life of 15 years, Angosat-2, launched by the 'Proton-M' rocket, is one of the projects of the National Space Program Management Office, a body assigned to the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication.

According to official data, Angosat-2 services benefit 16 of the country's 18 provinces, where more than 150 “Very Small Aperture Terminal” (VSAT) terminals were installed, small antennas providing internet services.

These acts aim, in accordance with the Government's purposes, to increasingly reduce asymmetries and promote digital inclusion among citizens.

Within this framework, the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication created the Connect Angola projects and the “TECH-Gest”, “TECH-Agro”, “TECH-Ecologia” and “TECH-Minas” platforms as the most obvious examples of the benefits of the Angolan satellite.

Connect Angola is one of the tools that works, through Angosat-2, to provide internet services in two municipalities in the country, namely Belo Horizonte (Bié) and Canzar (Lunda Norte), in addition to benefiting the province of Luanda.

Tech-minas is a technological solution that uses satellite and drone images to monitor the construction of infrastructure, such as roads, housing, among others.

This tool is included in the Top 100 of the best projects in the world of artificial intelligence, being aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Tech-Agro is available for monitoring and mapping cultivation areas, automatically identifying the type of cultivation and estimating harvest productivity.

Along the same path, Tech-Ecologia is used to monitor oil spills, combat desertification and restore degraded areas, while TECH-Minas allows you to accurately locate minerals, generate alerts, monitor industrial activity, among other functions.

The Government also created two free “broadband” internet access points, installed in the municipality of Saurimo, Lunda Sul province, as part of the “Angola Online” program, run by the National Institute for the Promotion of the Information Society (INFOSI).

These are the points installed in the civic garden, next to the Provincial Government of Lunda Sul, and in Jardim 28 de Maio.

The project, an initiative by INFOSI, a public body supervised by the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, aims to promote the development of the information society in Angola.

The project, which has already installed 135 free internet points across the country, with the aim of covering 164 municipalities, aims to massify and digitally include the region's population in access to free internet.

The 'Angola Online” project has the capacity to operate within a radius of 400 meters, and has user limits of 300 people per day.

Angola welcomes Submarine Cable 2 Africa  

The year that ended was also marked by the arrival of the Submarine Cable 2 Africa, from London, which landed on the seafront of the municipality of Cacuaco, in Luanda, to rotate the African continent, before returning to London in April 2024, to start operating. 

2 Africa is a consortium with Vodafone, WIOCC, China Mobile International, MTN, Orange, Telecom Egypt, STC and Meta (Facebook), designed to provide seamless international connectivity to approximately 3 billion people, representing 36% of the global population, and connecting Africa, Europe and Asia. 

The Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication (MINTICS), through the National Institute for the Promotion of the Information Society (INFOSI), now has a new domínio.ao registration service to facilitate the identification of companies and organizations in cyberspace. 

Specifically, it is a digital platform where national companies can register and sell products, which will help improve the safety of these goods.

Angola improves connectivity with South Africa  

Telecommunications connectivity between Angola and South Africa has moved to high-speed access, with the new terrestrial fiber route, which connects Luanda (Angola), and Johannesburg (South Africa). 

The new fiber optic route, which crosses Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, is the result of a partnership between a pan-African technology group, known as 'Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid Dataport'), and Angola Telecom, the main fixed network operator in Angola. 

Another event that marked the agenda of the Telecommunications and Information Technology sector was the World Space Week, an event in which the

Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Mário Oliveira, stressed that the country registered approximately 500,000 interactions on social networks and on the portal of the National Space Program Management Office.

Likewise, he said, more than five million citizens were registered through the conventional media.

In the country, 184 satellite communication sites of the state's administrative telecommunications network were installed in all municipalities.

Through the capacity of Angosat-2, it is being possible to gradually bring communications to the most remote areas of the country, within the scope of the Connect Angola project.

With the set of projects being implemented, the number of mobile phone subscribers went from 14 million in 2020 to 24 million in 2023 and the number of internet users has grown in the last three years, from 6 million to 10 million.

Investment in the training of Angolan staff in the sector has been permanent, so it is young Angolans who are responsible for this growth.

Angola, Zambia and DRC connected via optical fiber

Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are connected, as of this year, via optical fiber, as part of the transfer of the management of the Lobito Corridor, for 30 years, to the management consortium.

The inauguration of the connection took place in July this year in the city of Lobito, Benguela, by video call, in a connection made by the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Mário Oliveira.

On the occasion, the minister, in a brief conversation, interacted with his counterparts from Zambia and DR Congo.  

The inaugural act was witnessed by the Angolan Heads of State, João Lourenço, Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, and DR Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, who were in the city of Lobito to witness the transfer of the concession of rail and logistics services to support the Lobito Corridor to the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium.

The terrestrial fiber connection with the DRC is ensured by the operators Angola Telecom and Liquid DRC, through two point-to-point circuits, interconnecting Luanda and Kinshasa, over a length of 1,150 kilometers with a capacity of 40Gbps, and through Luanda to Cabinda (via the municipality of Nóqui - Zaire province), allowing access to voice and data services to national and foreign users.

The expansion plan for the terrestrial fiber optic network foresees reaching optical channels of up to 100Gbps each.

The connection between Angola and Zambia is ensured by the operators Unitel and MTN, in a point-to-point connection with the Zambian border, in the Karipande area (Moxico) to the PoP station of the company Angola Cables in Luanda, with a length of approximately 2,000 KM.

The network is a DWDM system with 10Gbps optical channels (OCh).

The completion of these connections is a historic moment for the three countries, especially for the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as it allows countries bordering Zambia and the DRC to have regular access to communications and electronic services via Angola.  ASS/AC/DOJ