| Satellite
Doom
By Sola Fanawopo
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
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Adenuga |
Photo:
Sun News Publishing
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As the two national carriers, NITEL and Globacom begin to
churn out products and services from their networks, the end
seems near for the era of VSAT-based Internet and communications
solutions in the country.
Satellite and VSAT-based services have blossom in the country
in the last five years due to inadequate transmission infrastructure
provided by NITEL, the sole national carrier until about three
years ago.
As a result, most corporate organizations, financial institutions
and even the GSM operators at a time depended on VSAT-based
services for the operations of their Wide Area Network (WAN)
and Virtual Private Network (VPN).
The invasion of the skyline of the nation’s major cities
by the C-Band and KU-Band VSAT dishes underlined the widespread
adoption of the satellite-based telecommunications services
in the country.
However, last week’s formal launching of the NITEL’s
IP Wholesale services and Globacom’s signing of VPN
service Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with 10 banks may
have signposted the end of VSAT boom in the country.
The NITEL IP Wholesale service provides a guaranteed bandwidth
to the worldwide Internet, using the carrier IP gateway in
Lagos. The gateway is connected via the SAT-3 cable to the
worldwide Internet and provides access to a broad range of
clientele who are deploying Internet services as the platform
for their business.
The IP Wholesale is better than the satellite- based services
in so many ways. Due to the physical characteristics of the
used infrastructure ( fibre as against wireless), the latency
or delay of the IP packets is much better than using the satellite
alternative. In specific terms, the latency of the packets
using IP decreases to a 10th of the original latency of a
satellite solution.
Also, the bandwidth that can be delivered using the IP infrastructure
is basically unlimited, unlike the satellite option. For the
IP, the bandwidth can be upgraded at any moment without any
additional installation required.
Besides, the quality of the transmission using the IP infrastructure
is much more better. In general, a Bit Error Rate (BER) of
less than 10-12 can be expected. And due to the physical characteristics
of fibre and optical transmission, the IP service will not
have any negative influence from the weather, radiation, electromagnetic
field and flying object.
And to cap it all, the NITEL IP wholesale service is much
more cheaper than the satellite-based option.
And in apparent realization of the functionalities of the
IP Wholesale services, the Minister of Communications, Chief
Cornelius Adebayo, in his keynote address at the IP launch
predicted the end of VSAT business in the country.
His words, "with the introduction of this product using
optical fibre, gone are those days of VSAT as a means of providing
Internet services in Nigeria with limitation in speed and
reliability."
However, while VSAT business may be the casualty of the renewed
effort by NITEL effort to live up to expectations as a national
carrier, the promoters of VSAT business who are largely Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) would not be thrown out of business
if NITEL’s marketing strategies is anything to go by.
According to the company’s Chief Executive Officer,
Albert Mashi, NITEL is ready to work with the ISPs in marketing
the IP services. "NITEL, the ISPs’ ISP has taken
the strategic decision to declare as our partners any company
that wants to do business with us by making this service available
to end-users because we believe combining the strength of
the relationship between end-customers and ISPs is the wining
combination for Nigeria."
And in a related development, Daily Sun learnt that Globacom,
the Second National Operator (SNO), upon installation of its
national fibre optic transmission network, has signed a VPN
service Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with 10 banks in
the country.
According to a reliable source, the banks were excited with
the deals because Globacom offered them just 20 per cent tariff
of what they are currently paying to some VSAT and Fixed Wireless
Access (FWA) operators.
The sources further revealed that six out of the banks have
commenced preparation for connection of their WAN to the carrier’s
backbone transmission.
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