The formation of Swazi.net, the IP backbone infrastructure that connects Swaziland to the rest of the world, has resulted in a further two major Sun Microsystems orders from African telecommunications companies.
This was announced by Peter Retief, technology consultant at PQ Networks Mpumalanga, PQ Africa's networking division that controlled the Sun and Cisco implementation for the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC).
"Since commissioning the R7 million Internet gateway in July this year, we have received orders from the telecommunications providers in Eritrea and Zimbabwe calling for a similar Sun/Cisco solution.
"It's a working pattern which can now be applied as the standard solution at large scale telecommunications providers" says Retief. "This is in line with PQ Network's strategy to expand its position as a leading new-generation network provider in Africa, providing world class product solutions."
Abie Fullard, director for Africa, Sun Microsystems Middle East Africa (MEA), says Sun is achieving healthy growth in Africa particularly within the telecommunications sector.
"Africa desperately needs to embrace its people as well as conducting efficient business. The only way to achieve this is to embrace the flexibility and service capabilities the new technologies enable," comments Fullard.
He says the introduction of the GSM system has given Africa an opportunity to catch up. "The African Telcos are seizing the opportunity to catch up on infrastructure without having to invest in the massive, pre-cellular landline infrastructure.
"A recent study has shown that the African Telcos, of which most are still quasi-government, but of which many are partnering with giant European Telcos like British Telecom, France Telcom and Telefonica are spending something like $4.5 billion a year to improve telecommunication in their respective countries," says Fullard.
Swazi.net provides corporations and small to medium ISPs with both leased line and dial-up access according to their needs and is comprised of five Sun E 450 servers installed in the capital of Mbabane. Through a network of Cisco routers, connectivity is provided to four major centres in the country - Manzini, Matsapha and Siteki - providing blanket coverage across the nation.
The deployment of the Sun/Cisco solution guarantees that there is no congestion on the national network, while the network is monitored to ensure upgrades when predetermined levels of utilisation are reached. Due to the SPTC's ownership of the telecommunications' infrastructure, the network is extremely reliable and robust.
Customers with a national bandwidth are guaranteed quarter of that bandwidth on the international link.
Prior to the implementation of Swazi.net, two downstream ISPs were providing Internet services in Swaziland, but the impact of Internet response times was limited and the government was keen to link as a first tier provider.
""This allows the SPTC to provide access to a wider populace and can be seen as an upliftment for the country," says Retief.
The project was a joint programme between the United Nations Development and the Swaziland Government who awarded the contract to GlobalOne, a French Telecom subsidiary.
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