Vodacom picks Intelsat for cellular backhaul solutions in Africa

Pan-African mobile telecom company Vodacom has chosen Intelsat for cellular backhaul deployments in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The multi-year capacity agreement will see Vodacom utilizing the Luxembourg-based company’s Intelsat 906 and Intelsat 25 satellite.

According to Vodacom, the partnership with Intelsat will see the satellite company expand its cellular backhaul infrastructure necessary to support wireless services, especially since mobile data traffic has been surging, not only in Africa, but across the globe. Mobile operators in the continent are already facing challenges with government stifling the auction of bandwidth.

The cellular backhaul deployments will also strengthen the South African telecom company’s implementation of 3G networks across the DRC. In addition, Vodacom will also be optimizing its partnership with Intelsat by using its world-class satellite fleet for corporate networking services, disaster recovery services, and in-flight satellite internet solutions.

TelCo unveils new mobile backhaul cell switch site

Network solutions firm TelCo announced a new backhaul cell switch site that can service 2G, 3G, and 4G sites. The new switch - called Marc 3312SC - is a powerful mobile backhaul demarcation that is one of the densest in the market. According to the company, the device incorporates high capacity despite its compact size (1RU by half shelf width), and features a non-blocking architecture 12x1G ports and 8xE1/T1 Circuit Emulation Services (CES) ports.

The Marc 3312SC has been designed to support the transition by mobile operators from 3.5G to 4G technologies, and because of its high-density yet compact size, is ideal for small cell deployments. Nir Halachmi, product line manager for TelCo Systems, said that the new demarcation device will support and expand TelCo System’s Ethernet and MPLS transport technology.

Some of the features of the Marc 3312SC is its flexible control of traffic and services, plus its scalability and resiliency, alongside easier third party integration and interoperability. Growing data traffic is challenging mobile operators trying to support the rise in demand while making transitions in their network. The new mobile backhaul cell switch site will provide customers with more secure end-to-end backhaul services which supports a wide range of management protocols.