[Satnews] SpeedCast France (formerly Geolink Satellite Services) announces the company has successfully deployed a 35 site network for Save the Children International (SCI), an international NGO with its central office in London, UK—the new satellite service provides connectivity to a network of 35 C-band VSAT systems across 35 sites in Africa.
The rollout of the new service was particularly complex, as it involved the migration from an existing service provider to SpeedCast. The migration process required work across multiple countries and had to be completed in a highly efficient manner, due to a tight deadline to complete the roll-out before the previous provider switched off the existing service. All sites were successfully deployed ahead of the deadline, and as a result there was no disruption of service for the customer.
SpeedCast trained members of SCI staff as VSAT installers at SpeedCast’s teleport in Germany. This was a great investment as one of the team members was able to quickly apply the training, and completed the installation of a number of VSAT units in Sierra Leone during the Ebola Emergency. SpeedCast also supported SCI in Somalia, where SCI staff re-pointed all of the VSAT systems to the new network. This flexible and collaborative approach was particularly helpful to SCI, as Somalia can be a challenging place to find satellite engineers.
The new service was set up for the customer as a Virtual Network Operator (VNO). The VNO allows SCI to allocate pooled bandwidth efficiently and allows the flexibility to make changes quickly. This has enabled SCI to provide an excellent service to its sites which could not be matched by the old system, where each site had individual contracts with a range of different suppliers.
SpeedCast’s network design team worked directly with the customer to optimize the design to meet SCI’s specific requirements. For example, QoS was used to prioritize certain types of traffic over the network. To ensure that staff can communicate effectively, SCI prioritized Skype and Lync. Augmenting this, the SpeedCast portal and associated Android application were extremely useful and informative tools, which allow SCI to monitor the VNO performance at anytime from anywhere.
With the new network, SCI expect to be able to significantly reduce their operating costs. This will allow for a full cost recovery as the SpeedCast service delivers greater performance at a lower price point.
During the migration process, SpeedCast’s technical support team also proved to be a critical factor, helping to rapidly mitigate problems that SCI encountered. During major deployments, such as SCI’s, the support staff have well defined processes in place to prioritize requests from the Emergency Response Team, as efficient communications are essential to successful roll-outs. SCI engineers stated that they appreciated the direct access to SpeedCast technician via SMS as well as voice. SCI engineers mentioned that it was far more efficient than the usual “call center" queues they had encountered with other VSAT service providers.
This announcement follows SpeedCast’s acquisition of GeoLink Satellite Services earlier this year.
Executive Comments
"During the recent Ebola Emergency, I spent two months connected to the SpeedCast service, and the connection quality was better than some places in Europe,” said Mark Hawkins, Global Field Technology Manager at SCI. “I was able to participate in conference calls with other parts of the world and some people were surprised that I was communicating over a VSAT link. Following the success of migrating our core C-band network, this year we have worked with SpeedCast to expand the network to 51 sites. By replacing Ku-band equipment with C-band systems, we have been able to provide our field sites with a better service for a lower monthly cost."
“It is an honor to have been awarded the contract by Save the Children to supply their satellite links across Africa, and we are pleased to contribute in some respect to their mission," said Christophe Pacilly, Sales Director of SpeedCast France. “Both teams successfully met the challenge of handling the migration of 35 existing VSAT sites, situated in some of the most remote areas in Africa to SpeedCast's platform in 5 weeks. Already recognized as a key supplier and partner in the oil & gas and maritime sectors, SpeedCast as a group, now figures prominently in the humanitarian sector."
