Gilat Satellite Networks… Upgrading In Columbia (Comms)

[SatNews] Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT) has announced that the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications in Colombia, with the National Fund of Development (FONADE), has extended and amended the agreements for the provision of services under the Rural Communitarian Telephony and Telecentros projects for an additional one-year term, through December 31st, 2011. The extended service agreements are valued at approximately $21 million.

These service agreements are for projects that provide telephony and public data access to remote communities throughout rural Colombia. The current extension of the agreements covers approximately 1600 sites that will be served by Gilat throughout 2011 and includes certain performance indicators and schedules of new installations. The new sites include telephony sites, small community internet access Telecenters known locally as CACI sites, and larger Telecenters. The Telecenters are equipped with telephones, computers, printers, scanners, faxes and webcams all provided by Gilat. As part of the agreements, the Telecenters’ administrators will be qualified by Gilat to conduct computer and internet literacy training for the community members. Gilat will also upgrade more than 850 existing CACI sites to increase the download and upload data rates twofold, from 256kbps/64kbps to 512kbps/128kbps, which will allow the users to benefit from applications that are more bandwidth intensive. As part of the agreements, Gilat will also transfer up to 337 existing CACIs from sites where terrestrial coverage is now available, to new remote locations where broadband and telephony infrastructure have not yet existed.