New technology to help remote areas access the internet

Rural and remote areas of Tanzania may soon get reliable internet connectivity thanks to a newly introduced information technology. The technology stands as a plus because many remote communities in Tanzania are beyond the reach of terrestrial infrastructure, reliable and internet connectivity, access to libraries and interaction with other users through e-mail. The Assistant Sales and Marketing Manager for SatCom Networks Africa Ltd, Brijesh Pattni, told the Financial Times on Friday that rural communities could now benefit from GILAT technology services previous available only to urban areas. ’’Through the GILAT technology, remote areas will have the same access to the internet as advanced communities in the world,” he said. He said GILAT’S education solution did not require terrestrial communication lines since it uses satellite technology, which provides a uniform and fair level of service to all communities regardless of their location. He said GILAT for education included central hub facility, internet backbone connectivity, and fully independent classroom, intra-class computing facilities, training programmes for administrators and teachers, and an education portal. In addition, the GILAT for education portal provides a single point of interaction with dynamic information, applications, process and people. ’’It is a gateway to view, manage and interact with education content, personalized application and community related activities,’’ he said. Pattni said as part of the core portal offering, GILAT had designed and implemented some key elements for education content management, administration and e-learning. Nevertheless, the portal platform is robust enough to allow easy integration of personalized elements to the generic offering. ’’The satellite link and distance independent, enables any community regardless of their location to have access to high quality education materials from national, academic, medical and law libraries,’’ he said, whereas formerly it was difficult to get information such as articles, magazine, books, newspapers and journals through browsing, searching and downloading. On top of that, the GILAT solution enabled full management and control of local education environments through distributing learning materials, and evaluating and monitoring the performance of each student. ’’Administrative online information is easily collected, analyzed and stored by the system, which generates reports with statistical data, graphs and charts providing administrators with a comprehensive management tool,’’ he said.

By: Peter John