Globalstar has announced that it has received MSS and terrestrial authorisations in South Africa, Mozambique, Gabon, and Rwanda. These countries join Botswana in representing over 1.1 million square miles of territory, a population greater than 100 million people and more than 1.7 billion MHz-POPs of licensed coverage across Africa.
In these countries, Globalstar has obtained terrestrial LTE authority over its entire 16.5 MHz of S-band spectrum, most with permissible power limits suitable for both macro and small cell deployments.
The company has established domestic subsidiaries with experienced and qualified partners who bring extensive knowledge of their local markets and are poised for success domestically and regionally with both MSS and terrestrial LTE service offerings. Globalstar’s satellite services combined with these flexible new terrestrial authorisations enable it to offer unique communications solutions in regions that have historically presented complex network deployment problems.
Globalstar’s team is now pursuing multiple private LTE opportunities across these licensed markets that are home to thousands of major oil and gas, mining, agricultural, industrial, and conservation operations. Globalstar and its technology partners have already entered the first Memorandum of Understanding with a customer in Mozambique for a Band 53 private LTE network solution and is looking forward to providing additional information on this opportunity once definitive agreements are executed.
Furthermore, Globalstar’s licensing in Rwanda and Gabon include C-Band authorisations at 5.1 and 7 GHz for the possible establishment of satellite gateway earth stations that would work in concert with existing gateways in Botswana, France and Turkey, to augment and solidify its coverage across the entire continent. Globalstar is working towards final investment decisions regarding one or more of these additional gateways in the near future.
“Africa is a rich market for our terrestrial and satellite services, and Globalstar is committed to bringing its unique mix of solutions to the continent to meet the communications needs of the next generation of African businesses and consumers,” said Jay Monroe, Globalstar’s Executive Chairman of the Board.
“Satellite and terrestrial-based industrial IoT solutions will be critical to facilitating enhanced communications and data solutions in regions that have not previously had reliable wireless and wireline communications.”
