Africa's Own Satellite

The West Africa Development Bank (BOAD), is to partner with RASCOM, Africa's Regional Organisation of Satellite Communication to launch Africa's first satellite in orbit to give coverage to the whole continent.

Up to now all satellite communication in orbit are dominated by the West. The result that African operators of satellite networks to African homes pay exhorbitant prices for such services. According to industry analysts, a satellite giving coverage to the African continent is in line with the migration of all broadcast signals by 2015 from analogue to digital.

The project is expected to cost about 1.6 billion FCFA (1 600 000 000). The partnership was signed on behalf of BOAD and RASCOM by Issa Coulibaly Interim President of BOAD and Jones Killimbe Head of Rascom. RASCOM is expected to contribute finance, design, construction, orbit placement and launching expertise to the project..

"BOAD gives a strong signal to the whole of the African institutions to join and to take their part in a project which challenges any African, to control the communication under technological conditions of point" said Issa Coulibaly during the signing ceremony. .

The project aims at offering modern services of telecommunications to millions of people who currently do not profit from basic telecommunications services. In order to improve accessibility to telecommunications, Africans themselves must invest in these projects. A satellite giving coverage to the African continent will not only improve telecommunication services in the continent but will also make sure that digital satellite broadcasting services are accessible to the majority of Africans.

Established in 1992, RASCOM is made up of forty five member states. Its first PanAfrican system of telecommunications satellite was named RASCOM-1 and will be launched on December 1, 2007 from the space port of Europe in Kourou in French Guiana.RASCOM-1 will contribute to the fight to bridge the communications gap between the rural and the urban areas and also enhance Africa's economic development in general and in particular the integration of Africa.

RASCOM-1 will will be available on Kuband and C band. The satellite will weigh approximately 3.200 kg, and will have a power of 6.4 kw at the end of the lifetime and will be positioned at 2,85 degrees

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