The much-awaited launch of the Nigerian communication satellite in China, the first of its kind in Africa, took place and went into orbit where it is expected to provide robust and reliable satellite services to citizens in Africa and Europe.

The excitement at the site, according to Nigerian officials at the launch, was "electrifying." Head of Corporate Affairs and Media at the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) Felix Ale said on phone that the launch was successful.

He quoted the agency's Director Robert Ajayi Boroffice as saying that the 30-minute movement of the satellite went on without delay.

The NASRDA boss described the launch as a monumental technological leap and victory for Africa. "With the successful launch of NIGCOMSAT-1, technological revolution in Africa has started as nobody can stop it," he said.

Nigerians here at home are also very rejoiced at the satellite launch success. Meshack Urueye, a technician with Lightning Networks, a local telecommunication service provider, said that the new satellite will undoubtedly play an important role in enabling them to improve their service and thus ordinary Nigerians will be final beneficiaries.

Joseph Pamah, a drink seller in Lagos, said that Nigerian mobilephones users have been suffering from the poor service and the new satellite will surely bring change to this situation.

The inauguration is expected to make Internet available in the rural areas at a very cheap cost and link up schools as well as make tele-medicine easy, local newspaper The Punch said.

With the satellite, rural telephony will come at cheap costs as big players would be able to deploy services without building their own terrestrial services, thereby lowering the costs, the newspaper added.

Source: Xinhua