A collaborative initiative by Gilat Satcom and Total IT Solutions is providing voice and high-speed data to ten villages in the states of Adamawa, Borno, Kano, Katsina, Oyo and Yobe in the North East of Nigeria
Gilat Satcom’s Village Island system was deployed in each village and provided a comprehensive communications system that includes VSATs, Wi-Fi routers, solar-power, two communal tablets per village and service management. The company announced that it is also providing satellite connectivity to its VSATs in each village. The integrated Wi-Fi networks provide local connectivity for data and VoIP to the communal tablets as well as to devices already owned by villagers and local businesses.
According to the company, the Village Island portfolio provides all the components required to build efficient and cost-effective self-contained networks. It has been specifically developed to provide Internet, VoIP and Video over IP over an affordable private satellite network with prices for connectivity for individual villagers starting from US$1 a month.
Nigeria’s Total IT Solutions has collaborated with Gilat Satcom and is using the Village Island solution as the infrastructure and service platform for the community hub networks in the ten villages. Total IT Solutions is rolling out the networks on behalf of Nigeria’s Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), which facilitates the extension of ICT and network services to rural areas.
Gilat Satcom CMO and head of business development Eran Yoran said, “Providing affordable access in rural Africa is an ongoing theme for the telecoms industry. We have worked for a long time to provide a solution which is both affordable for the village end-user and profitable for the entire supply chain.”
