Huambo – Approximately 20,000 people in remote regions of the provinces of Bié, Cuando Cubango, Lunda-Norte and Lunda-Sul are benefiting from the communication system provided by AngoSat-2, through the "Connect Angola" programme, ANGOP has learned.
The information was given on Friday by the deputy director for the Technical and Scientific area of the National Space Programme Management Office (GGPEN), Vangiliya Pereira, on the sidelines of the 2nd Consultative Council of the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communication, held in the city of Huambo, under the slogan "Connecting and Communicating for Citizenship".
She said that the "Connect Angola" project was part of the programme to expand the communication system in the country, in order to stimulate local social and economic development.
She explained that AngoSat-2, with a technical operation typically carried out by Angolan staff, is making it possible to make the communication system more flexible, through radio, television, social networks and mobile phones in the country's remote regions, which have been without infrastructure for decades.
She recalled that these areas, mostly located in the communes of these provinces, had never had communications via conventional institutions, such as Unitel telecommunication company and Angola Telecom, at a time when pilot projects were being developed to then expand the programme to other areas of the country.
The official said that this process of making communication more flexible was being developed in partnership with Angola-Telecom, the Communications Development Support Fund (FADCOM), Infrasat Angola and the National Institute for the Promotion of the Information Society (INFASI).
Vangiliya Pereira said that AngoSat-2 will provide a variety of communication services for the commercial sector in the search for efficiency and the expansion of the signal in the country and will facilitate the availability of satellite image databases for earth observation, for economic, agricultural, infrastructure and city planning segments and the monitoring of oil spills on the sea coast.
She explained that Angola is one of the few African countries that is already part of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Artemis programme (NASA) following the launch of AngoSat-2 into orbit.
She added that as part of this programme, GGPEN is promoting massive projects to train staff in space technology, to boost and manage AngoSat in orbit, with a focus on reducing external independence.
In this context, she emphasised that GGPEN has contributed to the graduation of 600 Angolans, including bachelors, masters and doctors, in space subjects over the last ten years.
The Angolan satellite programme in orbit (AngoSat-2) is operated by 45 national technicians. LT/JSV/ALH/MRA/DOJ
