Some of the most remote parts of Africa are to be given internet access under a partnership agreement between social networking web site Facebook and French satellite internet operator Eutelsat.

The companies have signed a multi-year agreement with fixed satellites operator Spacecom to utilise the entire broadband payload on a future Spacecom ‘AMOS-6’ geostationary satellite. The companies said they plan to build “a dedicated system comprising satellite capacity, gateways and terminals”.

Eutelsat said the service, which is scheduled to start up in the second half of 2016, will see the satellite enable broadband access to large parts of Western, Eastern and Southern Africa. According to the terms of the agreement, the capacity will be shared between Eutelsat and Facebook.

“The capacity is optimised for community and direct-to-user internet access using affordable, off-the-shelf customer equipment,” Eutelsat said. Read more