Avanti Communications Group plc (Avanti) has signed a three-year period Master Distributor Agreement on its HYLAS 4 and HYLAS 2 satellites with Vox Telecom (Vox), a South African end-to-end integrated ICT and infrastructure provider and telecommunications company.

The partnership enables Vox to use Avanti’s satellite fleet, which provides full coverage across sub-Saharan Africa, to deliver a cost-effective and reliable high-speed broadband service to the remotest areas in the region.

Avanti has invested over R 2.1B (143M USD) in local infrastructure and new offices in South Africa. The local team will support Vox as they deploy new services to rural and underserviced areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Vox will also benefit from Avanti’s HYLAS 4 cost-effective backhaul services which integrate seamlessly into mobile networks enabling their Internet of Things (IoT) services.

Avanti Sales Director for Africa, Neil Whitehead, said “We’re delighted to extend our partnership with Vox and support the delivery of affordable broadband across Africa, supporting our mission to help liberate the potential of communities and businesses wherever they are located.”

Jacques Visser, Head of Wireless at Vox, added “ Avanti shares the same vision and goals as Vox in terms of bringing connectivity to areas where  it doesn’t exist and through that vision has demonstrated that they are the ideal partners to assist us in deploying our strategy of taking satellite broadband to under-serviced  areas.  The local landing station for HYLAS 4 in South Africa opens new opportunities for Ka-band satellite in the SME markets and we expect Ka-band to play a more prominent role in the SD-WAN space.”