Africa’s top satellite communications executives were rewarded for their contributions to this sector at the SatCom Star Awards, which took place on 13 April in Sandton. The awards are now in their third year and were hosted by Terrapinn’s SatCom Africa show.
VSAT OPERATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD – IWAY AFRICA
In 2008 IWay predicted total revenues of US$28m and operating profits of US$8m. These figures were surpassed, with total revenue achieved at US$34m. The criteria used to judge this award were: number of terminals delivering services, rate of growth, amount of bandwidth deployed, variety of sectors serviced and services available.
INNOVATIVE APPLICATION FOR SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY IN AFRICA AWARD – STM GROUP
A key criteria is that the application is offered at a reasonable price that puts the technology at reach and that it helps bring communication to the previous “not haves’ of society.
FIRST CLASS CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD – GATEWAY COMMUNICATIONS Communications
This company owns and operates the largest and most advanced pan-African telecommunications network and has a well established wholesale business servicing GSM, fixed line and wireless operators across the continent. Connecting over 583 million people in over 40 African countries, their Customer service department is a hub of activity that looks after their broad base of business and carrier customers.
BEST SKILLS DEVELOPER IN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS FOR AFRICA AWARD (sponsored by SES Astra) – AFSAT COMMUNICATIONS
This award is for the company that is involved in sponsoring, enhancing, and contributing to the training of their staff. They have gone the extra mile to advance their staff knowledge by way of training. And an extra effort has been made to implement a skills development programme.
GSM BACKHAUL OPERATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD – GATEWAY COMMUNICATIONS
This award has been judged on the following criteria: the company has found innovative ways to provide backhaul capacity to its clients, above average customer satisfaction levels, provides exceptional quality of service and coverage to clients and is innovative in responding to market needs.
With more than 50 transponders of capacity, this company carries more satellite cellular backhaul in Africa than any other operator and is responsible for over 20% of Africa’s satellite cellular backhaul market.
BEST SATELLITE BROADCAST PROVIDER OF THE YEAR AWARD – MULTICHOICE
This award (sponsored by Eutelsat) has been awarded to the company which has pushed the technology envelope in a new direction; whilst remaining competitive and affordable. Most importantly, this winning company has helped to bring communication to the previous “not haves’ of society.
The winner of this award is a multi-channel pay television platform providing services to 47 countries and reaching into more than onemMillion homes across the African continent and adjacent Indian Ocean islands. For nearly 20 years, they have remained committed to providing the best home television experience in Africa.
Through their pioneering digital technology, the company connects African homes to the global information highway, thus ensuring they have up to the minute news and financial information, and remains dedicated to delivering the best in television entertainment.
The company operates from two satellites over Africa, including Eutelsat’s KU Band W7 satellite which stretches from Senegal in the West to Mauritius in the East and the KU Band IS 7 satellite which covers Southern Africa.
AFRICA’S SATELLITE PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR AWARD – ABDUL BAKHRANI FROM INTERSAT AFRICA LIMITED
This award has been given to the person whose role has advanced, and has expanded access to satellite communications in Africa. This individual promotes the use of innovative approaches.
In 2009 Bakhrani led Intersat Africa to signed contracts with nine satellite companies to bring Internet access to Africa. Although Intersat is predominately a satellite company, this individual’s foresight made Intersat the first East and Central Africa Company to supply capacity to the sub marine fibre optic cable that landed in Kenya in June 2009.
Over the last eight years, Intersat now operates from modern offices in Nairobi and Dubai and Bakhrani’s vision of a fully connected Africa has come to fruition as Intersat Africa is now a commendable force to be reckoned with in Africa and Middle East.
SATELLITE SERVICE PROVIDER OF THE YEAR AWARD – ARABSAT
The criteria used to judge this award was: the service provider who has made a difference to the satellite industry in Africa, exceptional customer satisfaction levels, made new and innovative services available and the extent to which the service provider has accommodated the changing needs of the system in Africa.
