Advanced Telecommunications,
throughout Rural Africa

Fixed-line Extension

This RascomStar service is designed for fixed line telephony (PSTN) in rural, remote and low penetration areas. Subscribers in under-served areas (villages of several hundred inhabitants) can access the RascomStar satellite via our rural terminals, to become connected to the public switched telecom network or other terminals with in the same network. A high-speed internet access option is available. The telecom operator is billed on a per minute of effective traffic; the services are managed by RascomStar through its network stations, which are responsible for the overall management of the GTS (Ground Telecom System) including:

Direct control of all Gateways and rural terminals and components
Call routing and coordination of all call set-up and tear-down protocols
Maintenance support and fault diagnostic
Billing to telecom operator is according to contract.

The system has been especially adapted to connect tens of thousands of  terminals installed in villages and / or small cities to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

The system supports pre-paid and post-paid accounts, calling cards and pay phones.

As meshed connections are supported, users in villages are able to communicate simultaneously with users in the public switched telephone network  via different Gateways, as well as with other locations (e.g. users in neighboring villages) equipped with the same system.

All communications are established dynamically for the duration of each individual call; satellite resources are only allocated for the duration of each call and returned to the bandwidth pool at the end of each call.

Remote Site Equipment

 

RascomStar terminals are specifically engineered for easy installation in remote areas, in harsh environmental conditions, including situations where there is no energy available.

As such, in their base versions they consist of low power stand-alone VSATs equipped with 4 lines and 1.2m dishes that can be powered from small solar panels. All base unit equipment is designed for outdoor installation and does not require any additional shelters.

The installation process is quick and simple, and does not require sophisticated installation equipment.

RascomStar terminals consist of the following components:

Small diameter parabolic dish antenna (1.2m Ku)
Block up converter (BUC): 0,5W or 3W
Low noise block converter (LNB)
Baseband block (base version):

Features of the RascomStar terminal:

  • 4 standard telephone line interfaces, which can be used to connect to standard phones or pay-phones.
  • An additional line can be set up to connect to a facsimile machine or telephone data-modem

A standard telephone line can also be configured to support telephone cards. Callers using telephone cards hear voice prompts e.g. enter PIN number, enter destination number etc. when initiating a call.

A RascomStar terminal provides the choice of two languages, for the voice prompts at the start of each call. A telephone operator selects which two languages are to be supported by the RascomStar terminal.

The base band block also includes an optional L-band interface, which can be used to connect an external DVB-S receiver.

To learn more about our TES contact us at: Contact Us