YahClick, the satellite broadband service of UAE headquartered Yahsat in conjunction with Vox Telecom has won the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project tender in South Africa.
This will see YahClick delivering voice and data services in the country’s Northern Cape at a dramatically reduced cost and with a high level of reliability.
The SKA is an international initiative to build the world’s largest radio telescope, which will enable astronomers to monitor the sky in unprecedented detail, thousands of times faster than any system currently in existence.
The Northern Cape’s remoteness and lack of radio signals in the area made it one of the best locations in the world to build the SKA.
However, the associated protection requirements imposed by the Astronomy Geographic Advantage (AGA) Act demand that telecommunication services need to be delivered in a ‘radio astronomy friendly’ manner.
These restrictions provided the perfect opportunity for YahClick to pursue its vision of connecting remote and underserved communities to each other, so it was seen as the natural fit.
Vox Telecom was awarded the SKA tender based on YahClick’s ability to operate over Ka-band, meeting this highly demanding requirement. YahClick’s Ka-band technology makes use of “spot beams” rather than broadcasting over an entire continent, which results in far more efficient use of the available bandwidth, at a lower cost.
It is highly reliable and is not subject to terrestrial related factors out of the subscriber’s control which are common in African markets.
David Murphy, Chief Commercial Officer of Yahsat said, “South Africa and the African continent is an important market for us and we were delighted that our YahClick service and Vox Telecom was chosen as the technology of choice to provide the SKA communities with the ability to stay connected. Working with our local service partner Vox Telecom, our technology allows us to deliver not only broadband internet, but also high quality voice, CCTV and a number of associated products such as email, anti-virus, backup and security.
We believe that this service will significantly benefit the regions’ rural communities, farmers, and small-to-medium size businesses. This is entirely consistent with our main objective of connecting communities affordably, especially in more rural and underserviced areas where it truly makes a difference to lives.”
He added, “We constantly look to improve our technology and product offerings and our winning of this tender demonstrates that our service can meet extremely demanding specifications. This year will see us continue to power towards the launch of our third satellite Al Yah 3, as well as focus on enhancing our existing service offerings through the rollout of our new portfolio of satellite internet broadband products across 28 markets. ”
The SKA has sponsored an initial 300 terminals which are currently being distributed to the local community on a first come first serve basis.
African Eye News.com
