Netherlands-based satellite communications specialist Newtec has signed an agreement to provide a VSAT broadband hub and thousands of VSAT terminals to Liquid Telecom, to be installed in Johannesburg.
Liquid Telecom has built Africa’s largest single fibre network which runs from the north of Uganda to Cape Town on a single thread.

In total, its pan-African fibre network spans over 15,000 km and is the first to cross country borders covering Africa’s fastest-growing economies where no fixed network has existed before.

Its customers include Africa’s largest mobile network operators, ISPs, financial institutions and businesses of all sizes in eastern, central and southern Africa.
This new satellite capacity will supplement Liquid’s fibre network.

Newtec’s Serge Van Herck comments: “By offering Liquid Telecom our cost effective VSAT terminals as part of our scalable network solution, attractive IP-based services will be deployed complementary to their existing terrestrial infrastructure. We are pleased to be part of their network expansion to deliver new services to their clients in Africa.”

The Newtec VSAT terminals are based on the MDM2200 IP satellite modems, designed to deliver services towards consumers, SMEs and enterprises. They are two-way, high throughput terminals supporting a wide range of IP-based services like Internet access, VoIP and multicast based services as well as private networking for enterprises and banks.

Ben Roberts, CTO of Liquid Telecom, says: “We were looking for scalable networks and reliable infrastructure and Newtec’s technology was the most compatible and reliable choice. It’s Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) was important to the overall implementation to provide better speeds.”

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is the underlining technology that enables service providers to offer customers high-speed private network connectivity. Service providers can easily integrate their MPLS networks over the Newtec broadband platform.