What is the R*BCS

The R*Broadband Connectivity Services provide high capacity telephony and IP connections between telecommunication operators within the continent for panafrican connectivity using R*BCS gateways located anywhere within the RASCOM-QAF satellite footprint (the whole African continent).

The network is autonomous where all African traffic remains in Africa and does not need to transit through Europe or other continents. It can potentially interconnect all African countries by deploying one or multiple gateways in each country.

At the same time African operators will be able to use the same R*BCS to rapidly deploy a national infrastructure, interconnecting regions:

• When there is no direct terrestrial infrastructure; or
• To supplement existing terrestrial infrastructure.

African operators are able to extend the reach of their infrastructure on a national and international.
(pan-African) basis.

How does the service work

R*BCS gateways are implemented in African countries to interconnect national terrestrial infrastructure networks (telephony and IP) via the RASCOM-QAF satellite. The service provides full mesh connectivity between gateways where telephony and IP connections are set up dynamically according to the instantaneous traffic requirements.


Operators install gateways at their terrestrial infrastructure connection points. These gateways are able to connect to other national and international R*BCS gateways. The capacity of a gateway ranges from 5Mbit/s to 50Mbit/s with a typical value of 20Mbit/s.

Gateway Characteristics

Gateway features

• 9.6 m dishs
• Traffic capacity of 20Mbits/s
• Sizing ranging from 4 x E1s up to 32 x E1s terrestrial connections
• Telephony SS#7 interfaces with terrestrial network
• Standard IP traffic up to 10 Mbit/s, can be increased if necessary
• Modular design allowing incremental capacity increase

Gateways may share the same radio equipment as an R*TES gateway resulting in cost savings

 

Future developments : WiMax, …

 

Typical Scenarios

Technology Advantages

Next Generation Telecommunications network for trunking services

Traditional services: telephony voices, fax and data
Internet Access Services: dial up connections
Additional Services (High Speed Internet, TV)
Future Services (e.g. WiFi connectivity under study)

Fully Engineered solution Including satellite and ground segment equipment

Latest State-of-the-art Design

Flexible and able to evolve
Incorporating Advanced African Telecommunication Operators features (subscribers accounts and calling cards)

Billing for « used » minutes

Full connectivity amongst African countries deploying R*BCS gateways

Full mesh connectivity amongst all gateways
Dynamic traffic capacity assignment (DAMA)

All African traffic remains in Africa

Removes the need for 3rd party countries and networks for voice traffic
Reduced voice call costs
Voice call revenues remain in Africa

Rapid service deployment (3 months per gateway)

It can be used for national and international traffic