Remote and rural areas of the Congo will soon have access to GSM mobile and fixed telephony services via a new partnership. The pan-African satellite operator RascomStar QAF will deliver the services via its VSAT terminals in conjunction with IPX Extenso.
RascomStar-QAF offers end-to-end solutions which include rural terminals (phone boxes or stand-alone BTS/MSC) connected to the operator’s core network by satellite backhaul through a gateway installed in the capital. These solutions, which have been developed in partnership with ViaSat and ip.access, allow operators to minimise investment costs as well as recurring costs (satellite bandwidth, power supply, etc.).
As part of this project, IPX Extenso will deploy around 50 sites throughout the country and one gateway in Brazzaville. Delivery to Congo is scheduled to begin this summer, when a pilot phase will be deployed to trial the system. Thanks to its local telecom partners, IPX Extenso plans to continue the deployment into 2013 with other countries in the central African region as an active infrastructure leasing company for mobile and fixed-line operators.
Mr Faraj Elamari, the CEO of RascomStar-QAF commented: “our telephony services were developed to provide a multi-service solution which is also suited for universal access telephony services in rural and underserved areas.”
Noting that operators have difficulties in reaching remote and rural areas at affordable costs, Mr Guy Badjoko, Founder and President of IPX Extenso is of the view that: “RascomStar-QAF’s new products are the perfect solution for providing low cost connectivity between these huge “islands” on the African continent”, and is confident that IPX Extenso can reach 10 if not more African countries with these products in the coming years.
