INTELSAT SHOWCASES RURAL TELEPHONY SYSTEM
(Satellite Today; 03/19/99)
Mar. 19, 1999 (SATELLITE TODAY, Vol. 2, No. 53 via COMTEX) -- Watch out
mobile satellite services (MSS) operators, there's a new kid on the block ...
Intelsat. Engineers from the international organizations are in the African
state of Senegal to undertake a three-month rural telephony trial, aimed at
taking business away from proposed MSS markets. The project is taking place
with the cooperation of Sonatel, the Senegalese Signatory to Intelsat and will
serve multiple villages using two VSAT/wireless local loop (WLL) stations.
Engineers will demonstrate the technical feasibility of providing satellite
interconnection for WLL installations through Intelsat satellites, including
backhauling telephony services into the public switched network.
"With this new trial, Intelsat intends to further promote a portfolio of rural
telephony products from the stand alone VSAT, which provides a few lines, to
various VSAT/WLL solutions, capable of handling 20 to many hundreds of
subscribers in remote areas," said Fabrice Langreney, Intelsat's WLL project
manager.
Intelsat is using a DAMA network infrastructure supplied by STM Wireless of
Irvine, Calif., operating via the Intelsat 603 satellite at 335.5 degrees E to
conduct the Senegal trial.
Intelsat hopes to market the VSAT/WLL system as an inexpensive alternative to
the global mobile personal communications by satellite systems such as Iridium
LLC [IRID], Globalstar L.P. [GSTRF] and ICO Global Communications [ICOGF].
Calls made via the Intelsat rural telephony systems will cost the user as
little as 10 cents per minute, compared to the several dollars per minute
planned by MSS providers. Intelsat recently has established similar VSAT-based
rural telephony networks in South Africa, Peru and Venezuela.
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Copyright Phillips Publishing, Inc.
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