> There have been a number of success stories in Africa where a local government / business managed to put together the funds to buy a communications satellite,

> There have been a number of success stories in Africa where a local government / business managed to put together the funds to buy a communications satellite, and overnight, the entire country has cell phones. Really? That doesn't seem likely at all. You can either put the satellites in LEO and you need a hugely expensive constellation, or in GEO and you need a dish not a mobile phone. The best use case for satellite is probably backhaul, rather than cell tower replacement.