More Congo Cities to Get Satellite-Enabled High-Speed Connectivity with SES and Gilat Telecom

SES Networks’ long-time customer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gilat Telecom, has expanded the satellite capacity under contract with SES Networks in the country, now topping more than 3.0 Gbps.

Gilat has been providing Kinshasa, the capital and largest city in DRC, with expansive internet connectivity services for many years. The company has now also launched service over SES’s O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite fleet to a second DRC location, bringing fibre-equivalent internet to customers in Lubumbashi.

Gilat Telecom, based in Israel, offers satellite and fibre-based connectivity services in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Gilat first deployed SES Networks’ ultra-low latency, high throughput connectivity in 2014, following the launch of the first four satellites in the O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) fleet, becoming the first to use the new connectivity in Africa, and the second worldwide. Since that time, Gilat has seen strong and steady customer growth in DRC, and has effectively become one of the largest MEO satellite solutions users in the world.

As the need for reliable connectivity has expanded in DRC, SES Networks worked with Gilat to implement a diverse routing solution to further increase network uptime and availability. With this solution, ground terminals were placed in multiple locations throughout the region, and an advanced intelligent routing platform was implemented to enable intelligent switching across multiple satellite links resulting in high link availability.