On 24th November 2020, HEAD AEROSPACE and NCTS have signed during Cairo ICT event in Cairo, Egypt a memorandum of understanding for a partnership to promote HEAD’s Space IoT solution in Egypt. Through this MoU, NCTS will be able to support HEAD in its regulatory applications and market access for Egypt, and selected countries on a regional basis. Cooperation may also include infrastructure deployment for the Skywalker constellation, NCTS to be positioned as a strategic partner and master distributor of Space IoT services delivered by the Skywalker Constellation. Since NCTS operates Teleport facilities and TIBA-1 HTS for various telecom and VSAT services in Egypt and other Arab states and African countries, there is great potential for complementary services from HEAD narrowband Space IoT solutions.
“I am very enthusiastic about the new partnership between HEAD and NCTS. I see a lot of synergies
between our companies and we are happy to rely on NCTS to support our new IoT solution in Egypt and trust that they are the best partner for us to develop the great potential we have identified together in their country”, says Jean-Daniel TRAGUS, the Commercial Director of HEAD Aerospace for the Middle East and Africa region.
Owned and operated by HEAD Aerospace, the Skywalker Constellation provides IoT narrowband
connectivity and AIS services all over the earth with revisit frequency increasing with every new satellite launch. Currently, 5 SSO satellites launched out of a total of 48 due at the end of 2022. Eventually, the Skywalker Constellation will enable connectivity at intervals inferior to 10 minutes almost everywhere on the globe.
“We are pleased to announce the cooperation between the National Company for Telecommunication Services and HEAD aerospace. No doubt that IoT applications have a vital role in many countries, especially when it is accessible everywhere using satellite constellation. We are quite sure that NCTS infrastructure and capabilities will facilitate spectrum and market access to HEAD aerospace, as we fully believe that the Skywalker Constellation will complement our services portfolio to Africa and the Middle East.” says Dr Abdelhamid Mostafa, Chairman of the board of directors of NCTS.
ABOUT HEAD
HEAD Aerospace (HEAD), founded in 2007, is a privately-owned space company with headquarter in Beijing. HEAD has extended presence globally including subsidiaries in Hong Kong, France, and the Netherlands as well as hosting global business development teams in Kazakhstan, Morocco, United Kingdom and South Africa. The international team are native speakers of Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Thanks to our access to 40 Earth observation satellites with a network of 60 local partners; HEAD has a unique positioning to be a key player in the geospatial market and act as a prime contractor to provide complex turnkey integrated geospatial solutions. In addition to the Earth observation and geospatial activities, HEAD operates its own Space-based Internet-of-Things (IoT) constellation with five on-orbit satellites including the most recent launch HEAD-5 in June 2020.
ABOUT NCTS
The National Telecommunications Services Company NCTS - (SAE) is a joint-stock company established in February 2019 and by the provisions of the Egyptian law.
NCTS established under the Prime Ministers Decree No. 242 of 2019 authorizing the National Services Products organization Agency (NSPO) to establish a joint-stock company in the name of the National Company for Telecommunications Services (NCTS). NCTS had granted Licenses from the National Telecommunication Regulatory authority NTRA to operate Telecom satellite and satellite earth stations, and the only holder for VSAT license to offer Ka-band satellite services.
NCTS owns and operates a wide range of infrastructure including, the first Egyptian satellite networks, TIBA-1 satellite in the geostationary orbit located at 35.5 East, Satellite Earth Stations, Data Center hosting facilities and Teleport facilities established in two locations in Cairo and Qena.
On the National and international levels, NCTS aims to provide fully integrated telecommunication solutions to its customers through well-established infrastructure that keeps pace with the latest technologies and to contribute to the development of the country infrastructure towards achieving strategic visions of digital services. NCTS scope underlies several infrastructure operations, telecommunication applications and added values services, which includes the Egyptian HTS TIBA-1 Teleport Earth Station facilities, Data Center hosting facilities, Telecommunication Towers facilities and Submarine cable landing stations.