Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq:GILTF) today announced that its subsidiary, Spacenet, has been selected by Posta Kenya to supply a satellite-based communications IP network, linking Kenyan postal offices throughout the country.
Gilat's DialAw@y IP platform will be installed in the postal offices, each servicing a LAN connecting three PCs. While one PC will serve the postal office manager's mail, the other two will provide Internet, email, fax and printer services. The Internet will be accessed through a JAMBONET connection provided by Telkom Kenya Ltd. using Gilat's prepaid Internet system.
Installation is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2004.
The initiative behind this project is the Kenyan Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications. Gilat said today that the initiative is the first of its kind in Africa, in terms of using satellite-communications equipment to modernize a country's postal system.
Avihu Bergman, Gilat's Executive Vice President for Sales said, "This contract represents a continuation of Gilat's success in Africa. We are excited that Gilat technology, which has proven itself in several postal applications around the world, will also play an integral role in the provision of modern communications services in Kenya through the Kenya Post project."
Kenya Post Master General Dan Ameyo said, "With Posta Kenya's deployment of this advanced satellite-based VSAT system, the postal offices throughout the country will take on the added function of becoming the hearts of the communities in which they are located. With postal offices everywhere in Kenya fitted with this exciting technology, the communication gaps and digital divide will begin to close as Kenyans everywhere will now have easy access to the Internet and other communications services."
Similar applications provided by Gilat exist in Kazakhstan, China, Brazil and in the United States. The application of the United States Postal Service is one of the largest VSAT networks in the world, with some 12,000 sites already installed.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on Wednesday, February 04, 2004