Africa Business Communities

SkyeVine set to make satellite broadband a reality in Africa

Users of technology across the continent can now benefit from a breakthrough in prepaid broadband connectivity. A South African company called SkyeVine, a wholesale operator of data broadcast services for Africa, is ready to empower organisations and companies with VSAT broadband connectivity.

SkyeVine spokesperson Anton Kotze says the company’s principle strategy is to ensure value transfer to all key stakeholders. SkyeVine is empowering Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with best-of-breed technology to support their service to the broader market.

Together with Q-KON’s engineering and operations capability and Ellies’ extensive retail distribution network as well as established partnerships with leading ICT entities including Business Connexion, Intelsat and Newtec, SkyeVine is well positioned to add immediate value.

“The idea is to help create and sustain a community of upliftment,” says Kotze. “This is not an isolated or vertically integrated effort. We are affiliated to recognised businesses such as SkyeMax, Blue Sky, DuPont and RealTime. This will help us to give impetus to VSAT broadband infiltration,” adds Kotze.

SkyeVine has integrated its Newtec Sat3Play platform with a billing and provisioning system to enable smaller ISP’s across Africa to rapidly adopt and roll out broadband services to the end users.  Its compact form provides an Ethernet interface to a PC or LAN router with unshaped data rates of 4096 Kbps into the terminal and 256Kbps from the terminal.  

The service is expected to fill gaps within coverage left by other technologies, such as 3G and ADSL. It is designed as a pre-paid, usage-based model suitable for consumers and small enterprises that want to leverage off broadband access, cloud services and IP telephony services.

The benefits of this affordable prepaid internet availability for consumers/small businesses include high performance bandwidth (2056Kbps/4Mbps), quick deployment and relocation, no cable theft and accommodation of data, voice and video traffic.

Fully equipped ISPs will ultimately benefit the end user and SkyeVine management anticipates that the service will reach schools, rural communities, clinics and businesses at affordable rates.  

Management at SkyeVine says a reduction in the cost of access provision and satellite connectivity, along with technological advancements, mean that VSAT broadband connectivity can soon become an entrenched alternative within the connectivity space.

Service providers in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia have already begun to leverage off the SkyeVine platform.



www.skyevine.com.

 

This article was originally posted on Africa ICT & Telecom Network

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