BACK TO PRESS RELEASES
Abraham Accords Internet for Africa' Initiative : Spacecom (Israel), Yahsat (UAE) & Geeks Without Frontiers Seek to Deliver Humanitarian Satellite Services During COVID Crisis 09.12.2020 Abraham Accords Internet for Africa' Initiative
Spacecom (Israel), Yahsat (UAE) & Geeks Without Frontiers Seek to Deliver Humanitarian Satellite Services During COVID Crisis
Spacecom (Israel), Yahsat (UAE) & Geeks Without Frontiers Seek to Deliver Humanitarian Satellite Services During COVID Crisis
December 9, 2020 (Washington D.C.) Leading global satellite providers AMOS-Spacecom of Israel and Yahsat of the United Arab Emirates are working with Geeks Without Frontiers to identify areas of cooperation emerging from the historic Abraham Accords to deliver desperately needed Humanitarian Satellite Connectivity during the ongoing COVID crisis in African.
At an historic panel during the 9th Annual Space & Satellite Law Colloquium entitled, Africa Humanitarian Satellite Connectivity During Crisis, Hamed Munter Odeh, VP of Strategic Global Business Development for Yahsat said he greatly appreciated the opportunity to discuss areas of collaboration to solve these grand challenges.
Ofer Asif, Senior V.P. BizDev, Marketing and Strategy for Spacecom added We strongly believe that a major part of our essence as a company is in bridging the digital divide and bringing basic connectivity to all, because this is not just a necessity, it's a human right. During these challenging COVID-19 times in the world, it is truly inspiring to take part in this panel with Yahsat and Geeks Without Frontiers, enabled after the historical Abraham Accord Agreement', and for this we are truly thankful and very excited .
Signed during the summer, the Abraham Accords, which include the UAE, Israel, Bahrain, and Sudan, aim to establish peace and full normalization between these countries with the goal of transforming the Middle East by spurring economic growth, enhancing technological innovation and forging closer people-to-people relations.
Both of these satellite providers are fully prepared to provide immediate satellite bandwidth to support basic internet, distance learning and telehealth to reach vulnerable populations. These companies have agreed to explore an initiative that would provide a blend of humanitarian donated capacity with augmented commercial capacity. Africa currently has 2.3 million confirmed cases of COVID, while at the same time 300 million Africans do not have access to broadband communications.
Michael Potter, co-Founder of Geeks Without Frontiers started the panel by observing that: We should never squander a perfectly good crisis. We stand at a momentous crossroads in history. This pandemic has exposed how important connectivity is to education, health, small enterprises, and to the essential needs of the people of Africa. History calls on all of us to figure out how to provide sustainable connectivity to all parts of the world, and particularly to those areas that have been hit hard by the comorbidity of COVID and lack of connectivity. This is a once in a generation opportunity.
John Morris, co-Founder of Geeks Without Frontiers, stated that the Abraham Accords represents a firm intention, as well as a heartfelt interest from these countries, to work together to have a lasting and sustained positive impact on this region. Together, YahSat and SpaceCom operate over a billion dollars of connectivity assets over Africa today and have the capacity to make a material contribution to the future development of Africa.
In 2017 Geeks Without Frontiers released its Community Connect initiative which provides a playbook of best practices and legal principles for accelerating the broadband deployment of satellite connectivity around the world.
During the forum panelists discussed issues, challenges, opportunities, and possible areas of cooperation to solve connectivity issues in Africa.
Watch on VIMEO
About Yahsat
Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) is a leading fixed and mobile satellite services operator offering integrated satellite communications solutions to over 150 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, Asia and Australasia. Yahsat's fleet of five satellites reaches more than 80% of the world's population. Yahsat is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE and is wholly owned by Mubadala Investment Company.
About Spacecom
Spacecom (Space-Communication Ltd.) is a leading global fixed-satellite operator and satellite service provider, offering tailored end-to-end communication solutions to the Media and Broadband industries. Operating the advanced AMOS satellite fleet, Spacecom provides innovative broadcast and broadband satellite services with European, Pan-African, Middle Eastern and Asian coverage and cross region connectivity. Spacecom is based in Israel.
About The Space & Satellite Law Colloquium
The Space & Satellite Law Colloquium was founded by Dr. Delbert Smith and Christopher Stott to be a unique forum for the open discussion of space and satellite legal and regulatory issues held under Chatham House Rules by invitation only for those professionals leading the field. The 9th Annual Space & Satellite Regulatory Colloquium is sponsored by the global law practice, K&L Gates LLP ( KLG ). KLG has a well-diversified Space Business Practice Group dealing with policy issues and legal work for the commercial space industry that is led by Elizabeth Evans (NY) and R. Paul Stimers (DC).
About Geeks Without Frontiers
Geeks Without Frontiers is a technology-neutral platform for global impact. An award-winning non-profit, Geeks' mission is to promote technology for a resilient world including bringing the benefits of broadband connectivity disaster preparedness, health, education, poverty reduction, gender equ
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
BACK TO PRESS RELEASES 
