Overview of Internet Penetration in Gabon Gabon stands out as one of Central Africa’s most connected countries, with internet usage reaching roughly 72% of the population in early 2025 datareportal.com datareportal.com. According to DataReportal, about 1.84 million people in Gabon were using the internet as of January 2025, out of a population of ~2.57 million…
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Western Sahara – a sparsely populated desert territory disputed between Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Polisario) – faces unique challenges in connecting to the digital world. The region’s political limbo and harsh geography have historically kept it on the margins of internet development. Basic telecom statistics weren’t even tracked separately for Western Sahara…
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Overview of São Tomé and Príncipe’s Internet Landscape (2025) São Tomé and Príncipe – a small island developing state in the Gulf of Guinea – has made notable strides in digital development over the past decade. As of early 2025, about 61.5% of the population (approximately 146,000 people) are internet users, a significant increase from…
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ESA’s Biomass satellite, the first with a P-band SAR, released its initial high-resolution images and enables 3D mapping of forest structure for carbon accounting. Rocket Lab’s 67th Electron launch deployed four satellites—three HawkEye 360 Cluster 12 microsatellites and the experimental Kestrel-0A—marking the ninth Electron mission in 2024. Amazon’s Project Kuiper added 27 satellites to reach…
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Biomass was selected in May 2013 as ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission to quantify forest carbon from space. The mission uses a P-band synthetic aperture radar at ~435 MHz (about 70 cm wavelength) with a 12-meter mesh reflector deployed in orbit to penetrate canopies and sense trunks. It employs fully polarimetric SAR (HH, HV, VH,…
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BIOMASS uses a fully polarimetric P-band SAR with a 70 cm wavelength to pierce through canopies and measure woody trunks where most forest carbon is stored. The 12-meter deployable reflector, shaped like an umbrella and built by L3Harris, directs radar pulses back to the sensor. The 1.25-tonne spacecraft was launched on 29 April 2025 aboard…
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Vodafone becomes the first operator to commercially deploy satellite-guided GPS sensors in 4G/5G antennas, starting in Albania to improve alignment and signal quality. Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) will launch to the International Space Station on June 25, 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, carrying ISRO’s Shubhanshu Shukla as the first ISRO astronaut on a commercial…
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On June 23, 2025, ULA’s Atlas V launched 27 Amazon Project Kuiper satellites, bringing the constellation to 54 in Low-Earth Orbit and targeting a 3,232-satellite network. Spain’s INFOCA expanded wildfire response by integrating SPOT satellite devices with Globalstar and Technosylva wildfire modelling for real-time location tracking, with a webinar scheduled for June 30, 2025. A…
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As of early 2024, about 26% of Eritrea’s 3.7 million people were internet users. Eritrea is the only coastal African nation with zero submarine fiber-optic cable landings. The telecom sector is entirely state-owned and monopolized by Eritrean Telecommunication Services Corporation (EriTel), with no private ISPs or competing mobile operators. Public mobile data is essentially unavailable;…
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Equatorial Guinea is described as a digital desert due to the internet’s high cost, slow speeds, and limited availability. Internet access began in 1997 via a France-backed connection, and by 2010 only about 2% of the population were internet users. GETESA, the state-dominated operator, held about 60% ownership with Orange S.A. around 40%, and controlled…
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