Satellite technology is being used to boost the use of the Internet and other services in Africa, the continent with the poorest telecommunications infrastructure in the world.
Instead of using terrestrial links which are costly to lay and maintain - and are frequently stolen - organisations that want state-of-the-art telecommunication connections and services can receive them via satellite.
"Telecommunications infrastructure, on which the Internet and associated services rely, is patchy in Africa," says Stuart Hardy, general manager of the access division at Internet Solutions (IS).
"Many South African and international organisations and companies have offices and branches throughout the continent of Africa and they depend heavily on modern communication and transactional tools like e-mail and the Web," he says.
"Using a VSAT (very small aperture terminal), companies are able to establish cross-border telecommunication links quickly and fairly cheaply. Just getting a regular telephone line in Africa can take months. The satellite equipment can be installed and configured in days, giving users access to their companies` wide area network and other services such as the Internet," says Hardy.
Similar to a satellite TV system, the satellite service uses small, oval satellite dishes to send and receive information. Data is beamed to and from the dish via the PAS 10 satellite which has a footprint that covers most of Africa and SA as well as Southern Europe.
Africa remains heavily under-serviced in terms of telecommunications. There are more phone lines in greater New York than there are in the whole of Africa.
Says Hardy: "The costs compare favourably with cross-border, land-based telecommunications charges in Africa. Satellite systems are also very reliable which is important as a growing component of business goes electronic.
"Most clients that use iSAT, initially use it purely as a means of extending their WAN into Africa for inter-company data transfer. Once this has been achieved it becomes beneficial to start running other services through this same infrastructure such as Internet access, intranets and extranets. Because IS provides these services and therefore sits in the middle, we are seen as the hub for a companies data traffic and therefore it makes sense to host their business applications or Internet presence with us.
"The quickest way to leapfrog the telecommunications backlog on the African continent is for companies to hook up to satellite based telecommunications infrastructure. This infrastructure is cost-effective, flexible, and scalable and it does not depend on any land-based telecommunications. Demand is exceptionally strong," says Hardy.
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Internet Solutions (IS) is SA`s leading provider of infrastructure foundations for electronic business and the forerunner in providing companies with effective connectivity solutions. At present, it connects over 1 500 organisations to the Internet and over 3000 sites through its range of VPN solutions, thus forming the primary electronic business community in SA.
IS offers a fully managed environment together with expertise in areas such as internet access, VPNs, hosting, dial-up, security and data management. Their best-of-breed infrastructure is without equal and has been the preferred choice of leading companies since 1993.
As the Internet industry leader, IS is also dedicated to sharing its success with others by providing improved access to education and information to all South Africans, particularly previously disadvantaged communities.
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