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* Broadband, phone service driving sales * Adding satellite to cover West Africa in 2015 * Other satellites possible for South Asia, Latin America * "This is the decade of African opportunity" - CEO Williams By Matt Smith DUBAI, Jan 15 (Reuters) - London satellite firm AvantiCommunications Group Plc expects Africa to provide thebulk of its revenue within five years as pent-up consumer demandfor broadband and phone operators' hunger for network capacitydrive sales on the continent. Loss-making Avanti provides wholesale data communicationservices and operates two satellites - the Hylas1, servingEurope, and the Hylas2, serving the Middle East and much ofAfrica. It aims to launch a third satellite to cover West Africain 2015. Two more satellites will boost the company's Africa capacityas well as potentially expand coverage to Latin America andSouth Asia, David Williams, Avanti Communications' chiefexecutive, told Reuters. He declined to say when these would launch, but said heexpects Africa to provide the bulk of the company's revenue infive years. "This is the decade of African opportunity," said Williams,a former banker who founded Avanti in a spare room a decade ago."It's difficult to break into China, Russia and India, whereasthe thing I love about Africa is that you have a continent madeup of a large number of small countries, which typically presentmuch lower market access risk." He said Africa's improved corporate governance andrelatively low sovereign debt meant it was an ideal time toinvest in the continent. Avanti's main business units are enterprise services, whichprovide broadband capacity to government or corporate clients,and carrier services, which provide network capacity to mobiletelecommunications operators. Its two other smaller segments areconsumer broadband and defence and security. "You can sell a lot of capacity very quickly in carrierservices. It might be the biggest source of revenue in the nextcouple of years," said Williams. "Broadband takes time to buildrevenues because the dishes have to be installed one at a timeby our service providers and we find that the enterprise jobstend to provide chunkier revenues slightly faster." Nevertheless, he cites the long-term potential for consumerbroadband in Africa, with about 340 million people insub-Saharan Africa living beyond the reach of fixed-line fibrenetworks, according to a report from the CommonwealthTelecommunications Organisation. "Although it takes time to sign them up, over a three-yearperiod the demand will turn into big revenues," said Williams."It takes about three to four years to plan, finance, design,build and activate a satellite, so we're already thinking 'wherewill we need capacity and for what markets?' Consumer broadbandin Africa will probably be a very big driver in five to sevenyears time." Avanti was the first company outside of North America to usethe high-frequency "Ka" bandwidth, Williams said. The company on average sells 11 million British pounds($17.6 million) of future capacity per month, but it reported awidening full-year pre-tax loss of 16 million pounds and itsshares have fallen about 64 percent from a 2010 peak. "We have to encourage our investors to understand thecreation of value at an infrastructure business like Avantihappens over a long period of time. It's not a big bang," saidWilliams. "Avanti was a scrappy start-up and it's forced its wayinto a market that looked previously closed. The incumbents havebeen slow to move into the Ka band. They're very conservative inprotecting their existing business, which is mainly TV." Satellite operators have licences that are regulated by theInternational Telecommunication Union and are designated inspecific orbital positions with Avanti's at 33 degrees west and31 degrees east. "There is real demand among satellite operators for accessto spectrum and Avanti has definitive rights in those positions,which I think one day investors will realise have higher value,"said Williams. Avanti has no immediate financing plans, he added. (Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Matt Driskill)