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Plessey instals satellite earth station for Telkom South Africa

Midrand now boasts an impressive new addition to its horizon as Plessey, one of South Africa’s largest black controlled telecommunications companies, announced that the organisation has completed a contract to supply, instal and hand-over an earth station at Crowthorne Teleport in Midrand for Telkom SA.

Plessey – in conjunction with Globecomm Systems – manufactured, supplied, installed and integrated the 11 m Standard B, C-band satellite earth station in record time.

“The installation was implemented in July, making it one of the fastest rollouts of a satellite earth station by Plessey to date. This fact underscores our commitment to meeting client requirements on time, within budget and with a total commitment to quality. Our commitment ensures that clients are able to meet their own customer expectations and deadlines,” commented Joe Mervitz, GM Sales and Marketing, Plessey.

To be utilised for the dedicated transmission and reception of data across Africa and the globe, the new Telkom satellite earth station is a welcome addition to a continent where wireless communication is essential for future development.

“Although Africa lacks substantial terrestrial telecommunications infrastructures, African business and political leaders understand that effective communication structures are imperative to keep up with world trends and technological developments. For this reason, the answer for Africa connectivity is wireless communication,” adds Mervitz.

This message is backed up by a statement made recently by Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxashana that “By providing access to telecommunications, we will open the door of opportunity to people whose horizons have been curtailed by poverty. Africa cannot afford to continue lagging behind other emerging economies of the world. We have to use every means at our disposal to leverage our ability to compete in the global economy.”

A joint venture between the R2 billion black investment group, Worldwide Africa Investment Holdings (WAIH) and JSE listed Dimension Data, Plessey sees a future of communication initiatives not simply based in South Africa but across our borders into Africa and beyond – literally bringing telecommunications to the continent and linking continents. Areas of specialisation include: satellite, broadcast, fixed line, mobile, value added services and international.

For details contact Plessey on (011) 655 1700.

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