SES, Luxemburg based company with a fleet of 50 satellites, is in negotiations to provide satellite services to back up the 
infrastructure of Ethiopia’s telecommunication provider, Ethio Telecom.
SES is planning to invest more than 1 billion euro in satellite infrastructure in Africa and expects to launch a satellite to best serve East Africa including Ethiopia said Ibrahima Guima-Saidou, African Representative for SES.
The company provides satellite services all over the world and has recently launched an initiative to enter Africa and to build long term partnerships with key players on the continent said Guima-Saidou explaining SES’s participation at the Innovation Africa Digital Summit held in Addis Ababa.Ethio Telecom has shown progress in utilizing satellite service to complement the fiber optics system and is expected to continue increasing its satellite capacity to better support the existing fiber cable system explained Guima-Saidou.
SES is discussing with Ethio Telecom and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to negotiate means whereby satellite solutions support connectivity he said.
Representatives of Ethio Telecom and SES met for the latest rounds of talks two weeks ago during the week of the summit held at the Sheraton Addis.
Ethio Telecom has officially been seeking satellite service providers to back up its telecommunication infrastructure. It is expected that SES and Ethio Telecom may come to an arrangement in the coming months.
Source: The Reporter
