Fabrice Langreney, Intelsat WLL Project Manager, stated, "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 twenty to many hundreds subscribers in remote areas."

Intelsat is using a DAMA network infrastructure supplied by STM Wireless of Irvine, California, operating over the Intelsat 603 satellite at 335.5 degrees E to conduct the trial in Senegal. The equipment infrastructure includes a DAMA hub at Gardoul and two WLL/VSAT remote sites at Mbour and Tivaouane. Each WLL/VSAT site houses a single chassis with the VSAT baseband and DECT WLL controller equipment co-located. This pre-integrated solution is a precursor to the fully integrated version being developed by STM Wireless that will be available mid-1999. Intelsat envisions that the fully integrated version will significantly lower required power consumption as well as reduce equipment costs.

Assaitou Dieng, Director of International Relations at SONATEL, commented, "This WLL/VSAT combination is an excellent complement to current VSAT technology, and targets larger populations in remote areas that are still living without telephony services. Intelsat expertise has been instrumental in providing leadership and support to make this trial a reality. We believe this trial will demonstrate the technical and economical viability of using VSAT-based technologies to offer cost-effective rural telephony services throughout Africa."

Tom Eaton, Intelsat's Executive Director of Sales, stated, "Intelsat, as a traditional geostationary satellite services provider targeting fixed subscribers, is positioned to offer extremely competitive per minute rates (as low as $.10 per minute), especially when using the latest DAMA technology which allows customers to pay for satellite connections on demand. This is in stark contrast to the GMPCS systems which are currently estimating several dollars per minute for service. Moreover, being an innovator and leader in rural telephony services reinforces Intelsat's role and charter to provide premier communications to all areas of the world."

Recent examples of other countries where VSAT- based rural telephony networks have been established using Intelsat are South Africa, Venezuela and Peru. In South Africa, Telkom has initiated a rural telephony project where more than 1,000 VSAT units are being installed. In Venezuela, a joint venture between CANTV and DTPI has been initiated by ALTAIR where more than 70 units have been installed, and many hundreds are planned. Finally, through the recently completed rural telephony trial in Peru, Intelsat has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using its satellites for interconnecting a WLL AMPS network and backhauling telephony services into the public switched network.

COMSAT Completes Global Service

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
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