The liberalisation of SA`s telecommunications environment and the increasing flexibility offered by the convergence of technologies means it is time for satellite to take its rightful place in delivering leading-edge solutions, says Roy Ingle, Regional Director: Africa for satellite owner Europe*Star.
Europe*Star is participating in the annual SatCom conference and exhibition being held in Sandton this week.
"Satellite capacity to move volumes of data around the country is vastly under-utilised and the new partnerships being formed by suppliers and systems integrators means the market now has the freedom to explore new communications options," he says.
"South African corporations must wake up to the benefits satellite communications can deliver within the country. Now that a new freedom is being dangled before them, South African companies realise that they`re thirsting for the technology that their counterparts in our trading partner economies - such as the European Union and the Far East - have taken for granted."
The integration of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) with satellite broadband and wireless networks are all components of an exciting new mix that can help open up exciting new ways of doing business, Ingle says.
"There is also space now to develop satellite-based LAN and WAN communications platforms, including solutions such as data backups for remote disaster recovery strategies, banking and government communications to remote areas where there is no terrestrial network."
Major beneficiaries of satellite communications will be enterprises that need to communicate with branches and supply chain partners around southern Africa and to remote areas where there is no terrestrial-based communications network. Wireless technologies are ideal to reach these places.
The mix of satellite and other wireless networks could have a significant role to play in townships, rural towns, clinics, schools and farming communities within SA. This would provide a quickly implemented and low-cost interim alternative to landlines.
WiFi, the wireless local area network (LAN) technology, is suitable for local connectivity. But, over longer distances, such as connecting an office or isolated wireless hot spot to the Internet backbone, something different is required, and this is where satellite adds to the solution, Ingle adds.
The challenge is to find the right organisation with specialist satellite resources that are matched by a commercial competence and flair. Because the playing field has been restricted for so long there are few top-end integrators with experienced satellite knowledge, which restricts their ability to rapidly gain market share.
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Europe*Star is a satellite owner-operator, offering capacity on its geostationary communications satellites. The company leases whole and fractional transponders on a full-time and occasional use basis, for use with a broad range of satellite communications services including television, Internet, telephony and corporate networking.
Brought into service at the start of 2001, the innovative Europe*Star 1 satellite has five high-performance beams covering Europe, southern Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia.
Its Europe*Star B satellite provides additional capacity for markets in Central and Eastern Europe.
An Alcatel company, Europe*Star is headquartered in London, with regional marketing offices in Cape Town and New Delhi. Europe*Star also operates its own mission control centre in Toulouse, for tracking, telemetry and control of the satellites.
For more information, visit http://www.europestar.com.
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