Microsoft and Viasat partner to provide satellite internet services to underrepresented communities in Africa

Microsoft Corporation and Viasat, a global communications company which provides geostationary orbit and low earth orbit satellites, have combined expertise and assets to provide satellite internet to 10 million people across the globe, including 5 million across Africa by 2025. This is being facilitated through Microsoft’s Airband initiative, as reported by both companies’ official press releases.

Through Airband, Microsoft and its partners have a track record of bridging the digital divide in the developing world by delivering high-speed internet access to more than five million people worldwide.

At the US-Africa Summit in Washington, the president of the United States of America, Joe Biden, said the satellite project would kick start immediately, beginning with Angola, Egypt and Senegal, bringing telehealth, distance learning, precision agriculture, clean power, and other services to these countries. According to the International Telecommunication Union, the UN, roughly one-third of the world’s population or 2.7 billion people, have never used the internet.