Leading global satellite providers AMOS-Spacecom of Israel and Yahsat of the UAE are working with Geeks Without Frontiers to identify areas of cooperation emerging from the historic Abraham Accords to deliver desperately needed Humanitarian Satellite Connectivity during the ongoing COVID crisis in Africa
At a historic panel during the ‘9th Annual Space & Satellite Law Colloquium’ entitled, “Africa - Humanitarian Satellite Connectivity During Crisis”, Hamed Munter Odeh, vice-president of strategic global business development for Yahsat said he greatly appreciated the opportunity to discuss areas of collaboration to solve these grand challenges.
Ofer Asif, senior vice-president BizDev, marketing and strategy for Spacecom, said, “We strongly believe that a major part of our essence as a company is in bridging the digital divide and bringing basic connectivity to all because this is not just a necessity, it is a human right. During these challenging COVID-19 times in the world, it is truly inspiring to take part in this panel with Yahsat and Geeks Without Frontiers, enabled after the historical ‘Abraham Accord Agreement’.”
Signed during the summer, the Abraham Accords, which include the UAE, Israel, Bahrain, and Sudan, aim to establish peace and full normalisation between these countries to transform the Middle East by spurring economic growth, enhancing technological innovation and forging closer people-to-people relations.
Both satellite providers are fully prepared to provide immediate satellite bandwidth to support basic Internet, distance learning and telehealth to reach vulnerable populations. These companies have agreed to explore an initiative that would provide a blend of humanitarian donated capacity with augmented commercial capacity. Africa currently has 2.3 million confirmed cases of COVID, while at the same time, 300 million Africans do not have access to broadband communications.
In 2017 Geeks Without Frontiers released its ‘Community Connect’ initiative which provides a playbook of best practices and legal principles for accelerating the broadband deployment of satellite connectivity worldwide.
