Africa
Stratos Global completed its Mount Kilimanjaro educational expedition using its remote communications network. Stratos provided the expedition team with an Inmarsat-M4 terminal, allowing the team to send and receive voice, high-speed data, video conferencing and Web streaming communication services throughout the journey. While the team climbed to the 19,000-foot peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, digital media was transmitted daily via Stratos’ satellite system to students in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Four Canadian climbers were tracked along their journey, including their precise locations and altitudes, by the students during the expedition.
Peru
STM Wireless was awarded a contract from Peruvian telecommunications licensee CIFSA Telecom to install very small aperture terminals (VSAT) in more than 2,000 locations in Peru. STM said the deal calls for Peru’s telecommunications regulation authority to pay approximately US$28 million in subsidies to CIFSA and STM for the project, which must be completed within 18 months.
Russia
The Russian two-way radio communications operator Kuzbasstechnosport is planning to introduce in the Kuzbass territory in Siberia a digital trunking system based on the TETRA standard. The radio trunking services market in Kuzbass and Siberia presents great potential due to the region’s high population density, huge number of chemical, electric, metallurgical enterprises, and coal mines that call for services available through TETRA, said a Kuzbasstechnosport official. The company is conducting negotiations with manufacturers and suppliers of TETRA equipment and is seeking investors for the project. According to Kuzbasstechnosport, the total cost of the TETRA network in the Kuzbass area will be around US$20 million.
United States
U.S. company Telular is supplying its Phonecell fixed wireless terminals to Western Wireless to support its program to provide basic telephone service to underserved U.S. rural areas.
