• NTT DATA has announced the rollout of Low Earth Orbit-enabled satellite services for targeted clients across Middle East and Africa.
• The LEO-based connectivity services are for nine key clients from varied sectors such as retail, banking, mining, and logistics.
• NTT DATA notes that while traditional communications technologies like fibre and wireless are present in the region, the interest in LEO is on the rise.

Much has been made of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites in recent years as an addition to more traditional telecommunications connectivity, as the recent outages experienced in parts of the African continent have shown.

It is with this in mind that NTT DATA (formerly Dimension Data) has announced the launch of LEO-enabled services across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

Here the company has launched deployments of its LEO-based connectivity services for nine key clients from varied sectors such as retail, banking, mining, and logistics. The services aim to deliver a connectivity solution that improves network performance and provides a consistent and better client experience, according to NTT DATA.

Unpacking the reason for the investment into LEO satellite services, the company notes that it is not only aimed to mitigating the frequent disruptions caused by fibre cable breaks, but also power disruptions as a result of loadshedding too.

“While the company has been offering satellite services for more than 10 years, an integrated GEO-LEO solution, together with established fibre and wireless alternatives, translates to enhanced performance for multiple use-cases including access to latency-sensitive applications as well as real-time services such as video conferencing, among others,” it explained in a release shared with Hypertext.

“While other sector players have recently announced partnerships to offer the innovative satellite technology, NTT DATA has been focused on a programme of deployments for key clients in selected industries and is one the first to take a vertical approach to deploying the solution,” it added.

Here the company notes that there has been a resurgence in the interest for satellite-based connectivity and services, with customers wanting a vendor- and technology-agnostic approach for a fit-for-purpose solution that can not only navigate the country-specific complexities of regulatory obligations and risk, but also coverage and solution integration as well.

“Our approach is to provide LEO-based connectivity solutions using industry specific full-stack architecture. This enables business transformation for our clients, as opposed to simply connecting their locations. The enhanced attributes of LEO only reach their full potential when used in an integrated infrastructure and application ecosystem tailored to the requirements of the organisation. Our strategy has always been to use the breadth and depth of our expertise as NTT DATA to deliver more than just a different flavour of connectivity,” noted Greg Hatfield, VP of Infrastructure Solutions at NTT DATA.

“Addressing the unique needs of our clients demands a tailored approach. Our aim is to ensure that LEO satellite is an option for our clients, no matter where they are on the continent. As specialist aggregators and integrators we can go all the way up their stack to integrate LEO-based connectivity solutions into any other element of their infrastructure,” he concluded.

[Image – Photo by Jonas Humbel on Unsplash]