This joint African project is expected to lower the continent's dependency on international satellite networks such as Intelsat.
The company has delivered the satellite in-orbit, and will supply the ground infrastructure needed to operate it.
[1] On 2007-12-29 Thales Alenia Space announced that a helium leak aboard the spacecraft would delay its activation.
[3] On 2008-02-04 Thales Alenia Space announced the satellite had reached its intended geostationary orbit at 2.85° East.
Like RASCOM-QAF1, RASCOM-QAF1R will be based on the Spacebus 4000 B3 platform and will be fitted with twelve Ku-band and eight C-band transponders.