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Konnect Africa – a broadband venture setup by French satellite provider, Eutelsat – has announced the official launch of services, starting in nine African countries, according to a statement released on Thursday.

The London-based company said its broadband satellite services is now available to customers in Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Konnect Africa’s services will be provided by local operators, telecom companies and resellers in these countries. These partners will benefit from dedicated commercial, marketing, and technical support from Konnect Africa and training aimed at enhancing service quality, the company said.

Some of the select partners are: Coollink (Nigeria), AfrikaNet GoSat (Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire), Bentley Walker (multiple African markets), Bloosat (Cameroon, Central Africa), Global Broadband Solution (Democratic Republic of Congo), Terrace Projects (South Africa), Ubora Systems (Kenya). China Telecom is establishing communications links between the African continent and the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Konnect Africa.

“Connecting Africa means changing the way people live, study, perform business, and transforming daily life,” said Laurent Grimaldi, CEO of Konnect Africa. “We aim to take broadband further and closer to multiple development sectors such as the healthcare system, education, agriculture or SMEs. We are proud to partner with prominent players and excited to embark on this truly unique venture.”

Konnect Africa said it is initially using capacity on Yahsat’s Al Yah 2 satellite (16 Ka-band spotbeams) with expansion supported by a further 18 spotbeams on the Al Yah 3 satellite that is scheduled for launch by the end of 2017. The company said it aims to cover most of Sub-Saharan Africa by 2019.

Konnect Africa is Eutelsat’s initiative aimed at providing extensive satellite coverage of Sub-Saharan Africa for the delivery of high quality broadband services. Established in 1977, Eutelsat is one of the world's leading satellite companies, providing capacity on 39 satellites to clients that include broadcasters, pay-TV operators, Internet service providers, enterprises, and government agencies.