The expansion is in response to strong demand in the region for the company's Ipsys-branded Internet backbone connectivity services and powerful Ku-band capacity on the NSS-7 satellite. Ipsys directly connects customers' remote Points of Presence (PoPs) to the global Internet backbone via a single satellite hop.

Ipsys connections thus bypass all shared ground networks and associated congestion points--as well as any terrestrial connectivity gaps--to seamlessly deliver rich Internet content to even the remotest locations at high speeds.

Ku-band transmissions enable Ipsys customers to use lower-cost receive equipment and very small antennas. The NSS-7 satellite offers some of the most powerful Ku-band coverage of West Africa available today, making New Skies' Ipsys services the most cost-effective and highest quality solutions for connecting to the backbone.

Jean-Pierre Kabanda, New Skies' director of sales for Africa, said: "Since its inception, New Skies has consistently demonstrated its commitment to Africa and to the region's development, designing NSS-7 to be one of the most powerful satellites serving the continent.

"We've now developed a service based on the strengths of NSS-7's Ku-band coverage of West Africa, which will offer customers reliable, ultra-high speed access to the backbone with the benefits of lower cost Ku-band equipment. So regardless of the limitations of existing infrastructure on the ground, New Skies can offer customers in Africa a communications network that rivals any in the world."

New Skies currently operates 17 platforms for Ipsys services over five satellites via five separate teleport facilities on three continents. In total, these platforms provide over 850 Mbps of contracted capacity to more than 95 customers in 50 countries. Including the new NSS-7 Ku-band service, New Skies operates four platforms that collectively transmit Internet traffic to approximately 100 customer PoPs throughout Africa.

The transmission hardware, associated equipment and connectivity for the new Ipsys platform is provisioned at New Skies' Washington D.C. mediaport, which seamlessly links into the North American Internet backbone. The facility will uplink bandwidth-intensive Internet traffic to the NSS-7 satellite for direct delivery to customer PoPs throughout West Africa.

Ipsys can bring carrier-level, high-throughput, Internet backbone connectivity to virtually any spot on the globe. In contrast to fixed terrestrial connections, Ipsys solutions are flexible and scalable, accommodating the Internet's asymmetrical traffic patterns, and allowing incremental, on demand bandwidth growth to Every part of the Ipsys service uses fully redundant, industry leading components.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
New Skies Satellites
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
Satellite-based Internet technologies