From outer space to the Ashanti
Satellite to smart phone specialist Lynk has signed its second commercial contract with Telecel Group in Africa to provide direct satellite to smartphone networking services to Vodafone Ghana’s subscribers. This new contract will provide mobile coverage to 100% of Ghana’s population of 31 million inhabitants using Lynk’s self-proclaimed cell-towers in space.
After the takeover of its majority shares by Telecel Group, Vodafone Ghana is using the partnership between Lynk and Telecel Group to invent new types of service and provide widespread mobile coverage across the notorious Ashanti region and other of Ghana’s vast rural areas (pictured).
“Lynk is the only patented, proven and commercially-licensed company for satellite-direct-to-standard-phone technology anywhere in the world,” said Lynk CEO Charles Miller, “this agreement extends Lynk’s leadership in the satellite-direct-to-standard-phone category in Africa and is an important milestone as interest in the category continues to heat up.”
Lynk’s low orbit flying cell towers will allow Telecel Group to offer ubiquitous geographic coverage to over 6 million Vodafone Ghana subscribers and used to extend rural coverage, including Maritime Economic Zone, as a backup to ensure service resilience, continuity of IoT devices. They are increasingly important as a terrestrial tower replacement for underperforming towers, which are difficult to cost justify for both technical reasons – such as reliability and liability to theft – and even for economic output metrics.
“We are excited at the possibilities this partnership brings to the country,” said Vodafone Ghana CEO Patricia Obo-Nai,”it provides the unique opportunity to connect everyone everywhere and accelerates the benefits that connectivity offers in health, education, and job creation, especially for our women and youth.’’