Kyle Whitehill, CEO, Avanti Communications and Dawie de Wet, CEO, Q-KON sign partnership agreement.

Avanti Communications, a global multi-orbit satellite technology provider, has begun offering low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication services in South Africa.

The company collaborated with Q-KON, a southern African satellite engineering enterprise business, to provide Eutelsat OneWeb LEO connection.

Avanti said in a statement that the fresh partnership announced today is designed "to improve business operations nationwide in what is a unique and challenging connectivity environment."

The Avanti and Q-KON launch come as satellites play an increasingly crucial role in Africa's future connectivity architecture.

SEACOM also recently launched an LEO satellite service, which it says is currently available to its enterprise clients.

Avanti and Q-KON said their deal significantly bolsters Avanti’s multi-orbit solution and means the company can now offer a combination of LEO and Geostationary Equatorial Orbit (GEO) services.

Kyle Whitehill, CEO, Avanti Communications, said: “This is a strategically significant move for us in multi-orbit and we hope that this is the first of many LEO partnerships globally.

Whitehall added that the hybrid model provides assurance to customers. He added: “This is particularly important for our enterprise customers in South Africa where the need for resilience is key.”

Dr Dawie de Wet, CEO of Q-KON said: “We also look forward to supporting Avanti with our end-to-end and turn-key project supply, delivery and support capabilities.”