Affordable access for Africa at last
Altech and Citynet have signed a major deal to provide affordable broadband Internet access services in sub-Saharan Africa.
Altech has announced the signing of a technology and distribution agreement with USA-based CityNet Wireless Incorporated and its global licensing partner CityNet Wireless International (Pty) Limited. The principle of this agreement will enable Altech to enter the broadband infrastructure and operator space in sub-Sahara Africa, using proven leading-edge technology currently in operation in more than 40 cities world wide.
“Broadband network delivery systems are now at the centre of all global digital communications” says Altech CEO Craig Venter. “Our choice of CityNet Wireless as our technology partner in this deal reflects our strategy to expand into broadband markets in Africa, where cost-efficient use of advanced IP-based wireless networks is the key to meeting massive pent up demand.
“After an exhaustive search, we selected the solution developed by CityNet Wireless Incorporated, given their massively successful metro broadband rollouts across the world,” he adds.
Venter says that these rollouts are underpinned by an “elegantly designed, flexible and robust wireless architecture” that can be adapted inexpensively and deployed to the many African opportunities that now exist.
Cautious approach
CityNet Wireless Incorporated has been deploying wireless WiFi mesh networks globally since 2003 - including densely populated cities such as Houston, Panama City and Mexico City. The company claims to have been particularly successful in reducing the traditional cost of urban networking by using a combination of standard WiFi protocols, mesh architecture for redundancy and network flexibility, and extensive network management software tools. This combination is said to allow optimum throughput, minimum latency and maximum quality of service.
Altech operates at the intersection of telecommunications, multimedia and technology and has been cautious in its approach to broadband. It has spent a number of years doing extensive market and technology research into the broadband area and this continued even as the company aggressively expanded its businesses in closely related areas. These included digital Tetra wireless networks at Altech Alcom Matomo, digital TV at Altech UEC, its extensive wireless network technology for vehicle tracking at Altech Netstar and network service provision at Altech Autopage.
“We feel it is now strategically appropriate for Altech to embark in this new direction. We are confident, not only in the CityNet Wireless technology and experience, but that we have chosen the optimum moment to exploit this opportunity in Africa”, Venter concluded.
