AITEC East Africa ICT Summit


The theme for AITEC East Africa ICT Summit, in Nairobi, was “building Smart Cities”. The summit was a forum to discuss Africa needs and how to use technology creatively to improve the quality of life for both urban and rural populations. Delivering improved services in infrastructure, healthcare, education, agriculture and housing. The four main focus areas were on data security, cloud computing, mobile applications and ICT empowered services.

Just like businesses, cities compete in a global marketplace. By leveraging technology, they can use information to engage their communities, deliver better services, and lure prospective citizens. The majority of people live in cities, and the percentage is growing. As demands grow and budgets tighten, solutions also have to be smarter.

The concept of smart communities is based on intelligent infrastructure such as broadband and smart grids, so that connected and sustainable communities can be developed.

Steve Rich, Regional Head for NewSat in Africa, was at the summit to promote NewSat’s soon to be launched Ka-band payload that will provide increased spectrum compared to C-band and Ku-band, enabling greater volumes of traffic to be transmitted. Many industries are looking to Ka-band because the smaller end-user antennas (VSATs), increased mobility and higher bandwidths and speeds make the benefits of Ka-band satellite capacity an attractive offering.

Over the next decade, demand for Ka-band satellite capacity is expected to grow, Communication applications including trunking and cellular backhaul services, broadband access, enterprise networks and government communications will demand more Ka-band capacity, opening up new satellite possibilities. Jabiru-1 and Jabiru- 3 will bring new capacity to the African continent, initially covering Parts of East Africa and later Southern Africa.

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