Facebook bought the entire capacity of the Internet transmitters of the Amos 6 satellite for 100 mXNUMX to provide free Internet to the people of Africa

In addition, Israel will be one of three countries where an access server will be installed through which Third World users will access 60 basic Internet services, as part of the internet.org consortium

Facebook together with the European satellite operator Eutelsat purchases the entire bandwidth capacity of the Amos 6 satellite from the Israeli Space Communications company. The Amos 6 satellite is currently under construction at the Aerospace Industry and should be launched and operational next year and will use it to provide free basic internet services directly to the people of Africa. The value of the deal, according to media reports, is 100 million dollars.

The agreement signed as part of the Internet.org initiative in which the social network helps connect millions of people in developing countries to the Internet. The service, renamed Free Basic, will allow residents of 19 countries to access 60 basic Internet services including search and medical information from their mobile phones for free at low bandwidth.

Amos 6 is designed to expand the services of a communications space company at the point where its satellites are located above the 4 degree west longitude (slightly west of the west coast in the narrow part of Africa). Amos 6 will replace the Amos 2 satellite which should end its active life.

In order to provide fast Internet access to countries that do not have access to the optical fiber avenue, Facebook and Utelsat will connect terminals in Africa to dedicated Internet routers in France, Italy and Israel. The terminals will be connected to dish antennas with a diameter of about 75 centimeters.

"The companies will share the KA transmitters of Amos 6 and use them to direct a beam that covers the East, West and South of the African continent. The geostationary satellite will contain 36 KA transmitters, of which 24 can be used at the same time, although Facebook and Utelsat intend to use only 18 of them to improve visibility."

"The communication platform in the KA area of ​​the Amos 6 satellite will be used by Eutelsat and Facebook to deploy a communication network to connect to the Internet for masses of users who currently do not have access due to the lack of sufficient terrestrial and cellular infrastructure. Satellite communication networks have an advantage from an economic point of view, especially in places where the population density is not high. The optimal design for broadband services of the communication beams of Amos 6 contributes to maximizing the efficiency of providing these communication services."

"The set of communication beams in the KA area of ​​the Amos 6 satellite consists of 36 focused beams capable of transmitting broadband communications at a high data rate (HTS - High Throughput Satellite). These beams cover the population concentrations in West Africa, East Africa and the south of the continent. In the design of Amos 6's innovative communication hub, intended for broadband, the most advanced technologies in the field were used and an optimization was made that would allow reception and transmission directly by the home and office user while relying on accessible off-the-shelf products of the end equipment. The Amos 6 satellite is manufactured by the Aerospace Industry and is planned for launch in the first half of 2016 using a Space-X launcher from the launch base in Florida, USA."

Eutelsat stated that there are developing countries that nevertheless have good Internet communication with the world, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, but the access is less good in many countries in Africa that do not have access to the sea and are therefore far from the fiber optic cables that connect most of the coastal cities to the global Internet.

In a post on the Facebook page His, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg writes: "Over the past year, Facebook has been exploring ways to use airplanes and satellites (andAlso in AB drones.) to enable internet access from the sky to communities. To connect people living in remote areas, the traditional link infrastructure encounters difficulties and inefficiency, so we are required to develop new technologies."

"As part of our collaboration with Eutelsat, a new satellite called Amos 6 is set to provide Internet coverage to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The Amos 6 satellite is under construction (he did not specify where AB) and will be launched in 2016 into a geostationary orbit that will cover large parts of the West, East and South of the African continent. We will work together with local partners in these areas to help connect these communities to the Internet services that will be provided through the satellite."

Commenting on the agreement, David Polak, CEO of Halal-Communications, said, "The fact that the leading companies in their field in the global market, Eutelsat and Facebook, have chosen the Amos 6 satellite for the new strategic venture, is further proof of the high quality of the planning of the Amos 6 satellite and its adaptation to the new arena of activity and is an expression Security in the communications and satellite space. In this way, Space-Communications and Amos Satellites join the first line of innovative satellite communication providers that meet the evolving needs in growth areas of the world. We are very proud of the opportunity we were given to participate in this important project."

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• Facebook has developed a drone that will provide internet to remote areas
• "Israel can and should be a world leader in tiny and low internet communication satellites"
• The new space race that aims to bring internet to the whole world