Following the successful introduction of TelkomInternet via satellite, Telkom is now taking its SpaceStream Express product into Africa.
"We have started trials in several African countries and expect to introduce a full commercial service early in the New Year," Telkom`s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Nombulelo Moholi, said today.
Pilot projects are under way with Intelsat and Advance Telecoms, which have experience in markets outside SA and will work with resellers in many countries. Depending on the local regulatory environment in the different countries, resellers could be the incumbent telecommunications operator, or newly licensed entities.
"Telkom SpaceStream Express is an extremely versatile product offering access to the Internet via TelkomInternet which is hosted in SA or any other ISP who wishes to come on board," Moholi said. Packages are available to offer download speeds from 64 to 512kbps.
"The Telkom initiative supports the NEPAD process as it offers businesses in Africa the opportunity to get fast and reliable access to the Internet, a service most businesses cannot do without," she said. "We should also not forget the tremendous educational opportunities."
The service will be hosted on a Skyblaster 360E satellite hub station from Gilat Satellite Networks and enter the Telkom network to connect to the Web at Telkom`s earth station at Hartebeeshoek near Pretoria.
Telkom introduced two SpaceStream products in SA in October: SpaceStream Express and SpaceStream Office. "Both products have been well received and roll-out is in full swing," Moholi said.
SpaceStream Express offers download speeds in four packages from 64 to 512kbps while SpaceStream Office provides Internet access at a download speed of 64kbps plus up to four telephone connections. Both products provide always-available access to the Internet and e-mail services with no call charges. In addition to Internet access, SpaceStream Office provides up to four telephone lines which also support fax and payphones.
Moholi said the service was intended for periodic use of e-mail, newsgroups, file transfers, Internet chat, instant messaging and Web-browsing.
"It is not suited for extensive virtual private network (VPN) usage, video and voice over IP, remote access, gaming, hosting Web or ftp servers or applications with heavy upload traffic. It is also not designed for high volume sending, such as excessive e-mail attachments or other applications such as hosting Web servers and running peer-to-peer applications," she explained.
Users are allocated bandwidth on a sub-segment known as a "transponder", and have to share the satellite capacity. This means they will have to contend for their "fair share" during busy times, hence each access package is associated with a cap on data sent and received. Additional bandwidth can be purchased should the cap be reached.
"This is intended to keep the costs down, but at the same time maintain a good browsing experience for all customers and, very importantly, prevent abuse of the system," said Moholi.
As with all Internet services, in addition to the access products, users need to buy an Internet service from an ISP (Internet service provider).
TelkomInternet offers Vsatpro with a free Web mail service that allows you to retrieve your e-mail from anywhere in the world, a free anti-spam and anti-virus scanning which will attempt to kill a known virus before it gets into your mailbox. TelkomInternet provides a full ISP service for your additional requirements such as DNS hosting, Web page hosting, security services, among others.
Telkom SpaceStream Express and SpaceStream Office can be ordered from 10217. For more information, call this number or visit www.telkom.co.za.
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