By Kenya Engineer
Business/Economics/Finance
Intersat Africa Limited (IAL) headquartered in Nairobi has been at the forefront of satellite communication technology in Africa for the past four years.
IAL has recently installed the most advanced communication Dual-Star + Mesh Hub at the Inmedia Teleport in UK. This Hub is also mirrored at the Kenya Data Networks (KDN) headquarters in Nairobi for full Dual-Star capability. This state of the art technology has been custom developed for IAL by a team of engineers at SatPath Systems Inc of Silicon Valley in California.
Says Kai Wulff, MD, KDN, “Intersat’s innovative service SkySwitch is a major leap in connecting remote areas and KDN intends to use this service to establish multiple remote Gateway locations throughout East Africa to develop the use of High Speed Internet in rural areas. SkySwitch will enable ISPs to purchase high quality, affordable capacity to serve their remote customers.”
The SkySwitch Network System incorporates innovative technologies for efficient utilization of the satellite bandwidth. SkySwitch has consolidated various network technologies and merged many VSAT applications under one single platform, thereby improving satellite channel efficiency and minimizing recurring operating costs. It aims to provide the most efficient and innovative VSAT solutions for considering the present and future market demands. The most notable advantage will be the ability to carry out high quality point-to-point Video Conferences using small VSAT antennas at any location in Africa.
“The highly efficient proprietary technique employed in SkySwitch is the only technology in Africa to offer simultaneous SINGLE-HOP connectivity to Internet, Intranet (branch to headquarters) and direct Remote to Remote communication between branch offices. SkySwitch offers an attractive solution for users as it provides a clear competitive edge over other VSAT platforms and communications media,” says Dennis Wambugu, Business Development Manager, IAL.
The system can meet the requirements of customers from all sectors including government, private firms and corporations. SkySwitch can support a range of applications, including:
· rural communication for remote telephony services
· global networking for diplomatic agencies/embassies
· broadband access for ISPs and large corporations
· distance learning for rural education
· emergency response for disaster recovery
· air traffic control for fail safe redundancy
· banking and finance applications
IAL’s aim is to provide its VSAT applications and solutions to a wide range of customers keeping in mind their different requirements. Most voice traffic between African countries is currently routed through the UK or USA. IAL’s SkySwitch service, on the C-band platform of Newskies Satellites NSS-7 Africa beam, will provide cost-efficient direct communication eliminating the requirement of expensive international bandwidth and resources.
Says Hanif Kassam, Managing Director, IAL, “Intersat is an Internet via Satellite access provider to leading ISPs in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company has a presence in 12 African countries and is now expanding services to the Asian region.
In the last four years we have been providing innovating services and products for the African market that have been lacking in this industry. In December 2004 we launched Kenya’s first private International Data Gateway in a joint venture with KDN. The SkySwitch system is available for online demonstration of applications including voice, data transfer, Internet access, video conferencing, etc.”
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