Agility Beyond Space and Sonema deepen their long-term partnership to strengthen resilient connectivity across Africa

Agility Beyond Space and Sonema deepen their long-term partnership to strengthen resilient connectivity across Africa

DUBAI, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, September 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Agility Beyond Space FZ-LLC and Sonema, an MBS Group company, today announce a new long-term capacity agreement on ABS-3A, further strengthening an eight-year partnership behind business-critical enterprise connectivity.

The agreement provides Sonema with committed satellite capacity to support the resilient networks it designs and operates for customers across Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It represents an important strategic building block in Sonema’s growth and transformation strategy, providing a stable and scalable connectivity foundation from which the company can continue to expand its cloud, cybersecurity, hosting and value-added managed services.

For Sonema, connectivity is the underlying foundation of every digital service it delivers. In sectors where service interruption is not an option, including banking and financial services, energy, mining and other critical industries, availability, redundancy and operational resilience are essential. This new agreement reinforces Sonema’s ability to deliver that promise over the long term.

A strategic partnership built around availability and resilience
Sonema and Agility Beyond Space began working together in 2018 around a specific connectivity requirement and, over eight years, that relationship has evolved into a major long-term partnership supporting enterprise networks whose customers depend on continuous service availability.

The new agreement commits capacity on ABS-3A as part of Sonema’s broader connectivity architecture, which combines satellite, terrestrial connectivity, fibre, SD-WAN and managed infrastructure services.
When existing third-party capacity reached the end of its lifecycle, Sonema and Agility Beyond Space jointly planned the transition, including transponder allocation, sequencing and capacity ramp-up, enabling services to migrate without any interruption to Sonema’s customers.

This operational continuity matters most in critical enterprise environments, where backup and failover connectivity must remain available whenever primary infrastructure is disrupted. It reflects a requirement Sonema already meets for banking and financial institutions operating across over 40 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Connectivity as the foundation for digital services
For four decades, Sonema has designed, deployed and operated managed telecommunications infrastructure for demanding enterprise customers. Today, its value proposition extends far beyond satellite capacity.

Sonema acts as an integrated operator and technology partner, combining:
- Resilient satellite and terrestrial connectivity
- Cloud and hosting services
- Cybersecurity solutions
- SD-WAN and network optimisation
- Managed services and 24/7 operational support
The result for Sonema’s customers is not just bandwidth, but confidence that the digital infrastructure behind their operations stays available and secure.

Sonema serves more than 300 customers across over 40 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, with particular strength in banking and financial services, energy, oil and gas and mining. Its multilingual network operations centre provides continuous monitoring and operational support for business-critical networks.

Supporting Sonema’s growth across Africa and beyond
Africa remains at the heart of Sonema’s development strategy. As enterprise customers accelerate their adoption of cloud platforms, cybersecurity services and distributed digital infrastructure, reliable connectivity remains the prerequisite that enables all of them.

The agreement with Agility Beyond Space provides Sonema with long-term capacity visibility while preserving the flexibility it needs as satellite technology shifts towards more diverse, multi-orbit architectures. Rather than committing to a single technology model, Sonema combines the most appropriate technologies and partners to deliver the optimum architecture for each customer environment.

The long-term partnership with Agility Beyond Space forms an important component of the first phase of Sonema’s Prosperity strategy, supporting the company’s ambition to scale its capabilities, strengthen its African footprint and keep bringing reliable connectivity and digital services to its customers.

A partnership moving beyond bandwidth
Coming in the year Agility Beyond Space marks its 20th anniversary, the agreement is also a milestone in the company’s own transformation through its new “Horizon” strategy. Under Horizon, the company builds its business around managed outcomes rather than raw capacity alone, delivering connectivity and services alongside partners and taking greater responsibility for the networks it supports.

The Sonema partnership is a practical illustration of that approach: two experienced operators combining their capabilities to support long-term customer outcomes.

Executive comments
Mark Rigolle, Chief Executive Officer of Agility Beyond Space, said: “Our relationship with Sonema is already long and fruitful, and I am delighted to see our businesses grow together. Agreements like this one are what our next decade is made of: deeper partnerships with partners who grow alongside us, just as Sonema has, where we carry real responsibility for what our partner has promised their own customers. Between us we bring sixty years of doing this: four decades of Sonema’s and two of ours, and every year of it now stands behind one vital network.”
Charles Dufourcq, CEO of Sonema, added: “Availability is the foundation of every digital service we deliver. Across Africa and beyond, our customers rely on Sonema to keep critical operations connected, secure and running, every day and in every environment. Deepening our long-term partnership with Agility Beyond Space gives us the committed capacity and operational confidence to continue scaling that promise. In a satellite market evolving rapidly towards increasingly diverse and multi-orbit architectures, selecting the right long-term partners is strategic. This agreement is an important cornerstone of our Prosperity strategy and strengthens our ability, as part of the MBS Group, to combine best-in-class connectivity with cloud, cybersecurity and managed services for our customers across Africa and beyond.”

Two experienced operators, one long-term commitment
This multi-year commitment, one of the largest the two companies have signed to date, brings their complementary strengths together around a single objective: keeping critical enterprise connectivity available, resilient and able to evolve with customers’ future requirements.

Notes to editors
About Agility Beyond Space
Agility Beyond Space, formerly ABS, is a global satellite operator headquartered in Dubai and marking twenty years of service in 2026. The company provides satellite capacity and managed services to broadcasters, telecommunications providers, governments and enterprises through a five-satellite geostationary fleet reaching about 93% of the world’s population. Through its Horizon strategy, Agility Beyond Space is increasingly focusing on customer outcomes and managed connectivity services rather than capacity alone.

About Sonema
Founded in Monaco in 1985, Sonema, an MBS Group company, is an international telecommunications operator and technology integrator providing connectivity, cloud, hosting, cybersecurity and managed services. For more than four decades, Sonema has designed, deployed and operated mission-critical enterprise networks, with particular expertise in banking and financial services, energy, oil and gas and mining. Sonema serves more than 300 customers across over 40 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, combining satellite and terrestrial connectivity, fibre, SD-WAN, teleport infrastructure, data-centre capabilities and multilingual 24/7 network operations. Learn more at www.sonema.com.


Media contacts
Agility Beyond Space
Communications@agilitybeyondspace.com
+971 50 421 9458
www.agilitybeyond.space

Sonema
Communications@sonema.com
+377 93159315
www.sonema.com
Official spokespeople and executive leadership are available from both Agility Beyond Space and Sonema for comment or interview in Amsterdam in IBC on 11th September and Paris at World Satellite Business Week on 14-16 September.


Logo files, fleet imagery and executive photography are available on request.

Tehreem Masood
Agility Beyond Space FZ LLC
526959837398
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