Starlink hooks up over 100 rural base stations in Nigeria

AMN also expects to double the number of base stations plugged into Starlink’s constellation in the country by the end of the year. The operator says on average traffic has increased by 45% across all sites that have been migrated to use LEO backhaul.

AMN and Starlink signed a commercial agreement to use the satellites to connect the operator’s mobile network base stations with broadband services in 2023, and in April this year the first base station to do so went live Yebu, Nigeria.

Since then more than 100 terminals to other rural villages across the country have been hooked up, and AMN says that this means it is ‘able to unlock the full capability of the AMN Radio Node (ARN) to support the ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth and data volumes demanded by subscribers.’

The ARN is a multi-carrier and multi-technology (2G/3G/4G) radio node which can operate up to 5 simultaneous carriers in either 2G+ 3G or 2G+4G configuration, we’re told, and by using LEO backhaul in conjunction with it, AMN says it has been able to increase the BTS capacity remotely with no change to the existing BTS hardware on site. 

“These numbers are particularly impressive given that prior to the installation of AMN's base station, communities did not have access to any mobile network,” explains the release. “The mobile connectivity AMN provides changes lives. Farmers can find information about market prices, a healthcare provider can consult with doctors in a larger town, money can be sent safely and securely into the village, and businesses can expand beyond their own community.”

In other satellite news this week, Japanese operator Softbank has tapped up Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation for satellite comms services. The deal will see SoftBank integrate Eutelsat’s OneWeb LEO connectivity into its services targeted at businesses and government agencies throughout Japan.