|
ETC
concluded contract agreement with Dimension Data of South Africa for the
implementation of Broadband Internet Project
|
July 23, 2004 |
|
The Ethiopian
Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) concluded the contract (OF/31/2004) for the
supply and implementation of Broadband Internet Services in Ethiopia on July 22,
2004 with Dimension Data of South Africa
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
at a total amount
of USD 6,679,918.08 (Six Million Six Hundred and Seventy Nine Thousand Nine
Hundred and Eighteen US Dollars, and eight cents).
Following
the two major Broadband infrastructure projects, namely Broadband VSAT and
Broadband Multimedia, which have recently been launched, this is the third main
project for broadband Internet service delivery. Seating on top of the VSAT and
Multimedia connectivity structures, Broadband Internet will enable all kinds of
value-added services to be made available to the customers.
The
network that will be fully implemented within the coming five months shall have
nationwide presence with a total of 16 (Sixteen) Points of Presence (PoPs), 8 of
which will be in Addis Ababa, and the rest in major provincial towns. The
network is built around two fully redundant Main PoPs in Addis Ababa connected
at two separate places over high-speed fiber links. With over 8,000 dial-up
modem pools, the network will have a total carrying capacity of nearly 100,000
Internet customers. The network will also have capacity to connect over 2,000
dedicated Internet customers at any rates between 64 Kbps and 8 Mbps by the
use of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), and FWA (Fixed Wireless
Access) devices, and even up to 20 and 100 Mbps by the use of fiber and
Metro-Ethernet connections. Besides, the network supports herein listed
value-added services with featured security protections against Spam, Virus,
Denial of Service etc.:
-
Unified Messaging on Mail Server
-
Virtual fax
-
IP Telephony
-
End-to-end managed security
-
Pre-paid system with no-stop shopping
-
Dynamic Web-hosting service (ASP)
|
The two
features that make this project very special is the high capacity provision with
automated customer support and care. With the use of Electronic Voucher
Distribution (EVD) system, the Internet provision can be made fully automated
and online, i.e. the customer can get himself registered online for service on a
pre-paid platform. Furthermore, the fully automated Call Center facility
included in the project will provide the customer online support with technical
as well as bill related information.
In
conclusion, this project can be culled out as the services layer of the
Broadband initiatives that ETC has undertaken the past year in the effort to
fully realize the government led ICT development agenda. By the coming of
Broadband Internet services the following and more parties will be the
beneficiaries.
-
Virtual
ISPs (Private or Community Internet resellers)
-
Government Institutions like Federal and Regional Offices, Development Bureaus
-
Educational Institutions like Universities & Higher Learning institutions,
High Schools, Research organizations
-
Corporate organizations like Banks and Insurance
-
International Organizations and NGOs like ECA and AU
-
Private
and Residential Customers
-
Cyber
cafes etc.
|
