24/05/2024
Happy Africa Day
__Busy to ensure no African is left behind by the tech revolution!
As the continent readies to celebrate Africa Day tomorrow [25 May], this week we announced two fascinating initiatives to improve connectivity for and into and across Africa. You can read more about our new partnerships here:
Eutelsat Group One Web Satellite [Low Earth Orbit] Services to Africa
# https://za.liquid.tech/about-us/news/liquid-intelligent-technologies-and-eutelsat-group-bring-leo-satellite-services-to-africa/
Google Cloud Connectivity Expansion Across Africa and to Australia with Umoja ("Unity") Cable Route
# https://blog.google/intl/en-africa/company-news/improving-connectivity-and-accelerating-economic-growth-across-africa/
One of the oldest businesses in our group is called Liquid Satellite which I first set up in London in 1998 after the UK deregulated its telecoms sector, and I saw an opportunity to build a satellite services business. It was the first time I had set up a business outside Africa.
At the time, we were participating in the creation of a new industry that is now ubiquitous: private satellite networks using small dishes. There was a huge demand from remote businesses like oil rigs and mines.
As the technology has evolved, we have stayed with it. The latest technology in this space is called Low Earth Orbit Satellites [LEOs]. You are no doubt familiar with the most popular one which is called StarLink, but there are at least three major competitors including Eutelsat’s One Web. There is another one from Amazon, and also a major Chinese initiative.
Our satellite group will continue to work with such groups based on our own business plan, collaborating where it makes sense, and competing in other situations. Don’t ask me to explain why we choose one group over another because we won’t share such sensitive information. This is a long game, calling for patience, and wisdom. As always we look at , , and .
Another of our businesses is called Liquid DataPort and it focuses on crossborder systems, as well as undersea cables. We partner with companies that lay undersea cables to promote routes into Africa. We have been involved with most cable projects into Africa for two decades. This group actually spun out of our satellite group, which came first.
We realized at the time that satellite technologies have major limitations when it comes to carrying the huge data demands of the Internet. We also realized that noone at the time was really interested in building a system that connected all African countries together using a single network.
I saw that as a huge opportunity... [I did not complain or take to social media or other routes to complain; I set about to get it done!]
The route on the map used by Google is not the only route we have. It’s the one they chose to use. We have more than 100,000 km of such routes across Africa, and they are used by different customers.
A job well done looks simple: In fact, it took us three years to dig a trench from Goma to Mbuji Mayi in the Congo rainforest. We had more than 5,000 people digging with picks and shovels. It is the world’s second-largest rainforest.
Building that infrastructure, our engineers encountered every challenge imaginable including rivers that were not on maps, landslides, continuous rain, snakes, and other wild animals. There were also rebels in some areas.
They had to deliver materials from South Africa and Kenya. During the construction, Covid struck but we never stopped.
I salute our because we never lost a single life or had major injuries. It would not have been possible without the local communities along the route who helped us providing workers, shelter, security and above all hospitality.
It took planning, experience, and a lot of grit. These are the people who are truly building modern Africa! You have not heard half the story yet, on how this was done.
Of course, we had to raise capital to do it!
I often joke that I’m Africa’s plumber because what I focused on over the last 20 years was not sexy stuff like mobile phones, stuff I did back in the 1990s and early 2000s.
We rather focused on Digital Infrastructure that will enable others to deliver all these services. Most people don’t even know that virtually all the major mobile operators are actually our customers, because they use our cables and satellite systems as well as Data Warehousing facilities called Data Centers, to enable them to deliver their own services.
Now we are working to improve these systems with AI.
It’s a brave new world, indeed.
Please read the press releases I shared with you above, and tell us your own entrepreneurial lessons.
Better still... just DO IT!
Image credit: This is the Google Cloud Umoja cable route described in one of the press releases above. For at least 10 years I've told you here on this platform about building the cable route you see here running through the middle of Africa! As , what do YOU SEE?
"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises". Demosthenes
