This past month has been very intense, but thanks to the dedication of the Umoya Team and our partners (working 7 days a week and up to 16hrs a day) we have managed to get 85% of the Gauteng schools back online and 100% of our critical sites in the Western Cape. We still have quite a few sites to migrate and these will be done during the course of the next two weeks. The G11 satellite has superior coverage compared with IS-4 and we are also experiencing higher quality signal strength, meaning that the satellite network should prove to be more stable and give better performance. In the process of doing this migration and with our newly established partnership with Vodacom Business, Umoya has been able to improve the overall design of our customers  networks by adding more redundancy and improved performance. This has enabled us to lay a strong foundation for future growth by being able to offer superior carrier class services. We would like to thank our customers for having patience with us whilst we have migrated their networks from the failed IS-4 satellite. This migration would have had to have happened sometime this year, so it least it is almost behind us. The launch of the New Dawn satellite is scheduled for December and should come into service during the first quarter of 2011. New Dawn will be in the same orbital slot as G11, so migrating from G11 to New Dawn will not require a re-point of the satellite dishes. New Dawn is being funded jointly between a South African consortium and Intelsat and will be operated by Intelsat on their behalf. It is good that South Africans can now say that they essentialy own a majority stake in a communications satellite. Umoya is proudly South African and is glad to be supporting this venture.

Satellite boost for African telecoms

11 December 2008

Bermuda-based international satellite service provider Intelsat is partnering with a South African investor group led by Convergence Partners to build and launch a new satellite that will be ideally positioned to serve the African continent.

The satellite, to be called Intelsat New Dawn, will feature a payload optimised to deliver wireless backhaul, broadband and television programming to the continent, and is expected to enter service in early 2011.

Africa has been one of the fastest growing regions for fixed satellite services in recent years, fuelled by demand for critical infrastructure from communications providers and television broadcasters.

Debt and equity funding

The project is expected to cost a total of about US$250-million (about R2.55-billion), and will be funded approximately 85% with debt and 15% with equity, with the largest participants in the debt funding consortium being South Africa's Nedbank Capital and the Industrial Development Corporation.

Intelsat will provide almost 75% of the equity funding, at approximately $25-million, while the remaining 25% will be provided by South African investment companies Convergence Partners and Altriah Telecoms.

Customers signed up

Over half of the satellite's capacity has already been reserved for several leading continental companies, including Vodacom International, Gateway Communications Africa, Zain Nigeria and Gilat Satcom.

Intelsat added that pre-orders for satellite capacity currently totalled more than $350-million, with some contracts for up to 15 years of service on the satellite.

"The New Dawn joint venture is a great example of the type of creative investments Intelsat will use to further develop our fleet in regions where we believe there is unmet demand," Intelsat CEO David McGlade said in a statement this week.

"Once in service, Intelsat New Dawn will be an integral part of our global, resilient satellite network, providing growth capacity and allowing us to further expand our services to our long-time customers in Africa."

Convergence Partners chairman Andile Ngcaba said the satellite would "provide world-class connectivity, allowing businesses to grow and rural communities to connect.

"Convergence Partners believes that investments in African projects of this nature can offer superior returns while also accelerating the socio-economic development of the continent."

SAinfo reporter

By this morning, Monday 22 February 2010, 70% of the Gauteng schools have been migrated to G11.  The sites we are now dealing with are those where civil engineering work is needed to reposition the dishes, and where technical or logistical challenges have thwarted us so far.  We still aim to have as close to 100% of the schools up by the end of February.

The migration of our Western Cape customers started over the weekend, after installation teams had been trained on the new equipment we are using.  These sites should also be migrated by the end of the month.

To date, we have been frustrated with logistical challenges, especially with timely supply of new equipment. As most of these issues had been ironed by this morning, we're optimistic that apart from sites which have specific technical challenges, the repointing  should proceed without further delays.

We have an interim progress report on service restoration:

We are in the final stages of concluding an agreement with a national network operator which will not only provide us with satellite bandwidth but will put us in a position to resell a suite of services which will supplement and enhance our VSAT offering.  Adversity often brings unexpected benefits (‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose’ - Romans 8:27-28).

Engineers have literally been working through the nights to set up a new network. The satellite hub is now up and connected to Intelsat satellite G11.  We have started repointing the antennae at the 250 sites for the schools in Gauteng.

We are working with solutions architects from the national network operator to develop a cost effective yet extremely robust WAN offering.  We will be in a position to start repointing VSAT dishes and installing the supplementary Customer Premises Equipment by Monday 15 February.  The teams will be starting with the 16 critical Disaster Recovery sites, starting on Thursday 11th February at Tygerberg moving on to the EMCs and WBs and more remote sites before the 16th.  The balance of the sites will be done before the end of Feb.  The schools will also be completed before the of Feb.

We would like to extend our thanks to our customers, many of whom, although anxious to see service restored as soon as possible, have been understanding and supportive during this extraordinary time.

By now Umoya customers would be aware of the failure of IS-4, a satellite which Umoya has used extensively to date to provide connectivity to a number of our customers.  This is the first of what is likely to be a number of updates on progress with restoring service.

* What happened?

- Intelsat announced on Monday 1 February 2010 that its Intelsat 4 satellite (IS-4), located at 72° East Longitude, experienced an anomaly at 00:18 GMT that morning. Intelsat has stated that it is working with affected customers to identify restoration capacity.  It is not yet clear why the geostationary satellite went into a spin.  IS-4 is scheduled to go out of service later this year, having been launched in 1995.

* Can it be fixed?

- Early indiactions from Intelsat are that it will not be possible to rectify the problem and that alternative satellites will need to be used until such time as the scheduled replacement satellite called “New Dawn” is launched later this year.

* What is Umoya doing to restore service to its customers?

- Umoya is working with a number of upstream service providers to identify available bandwidth on satellites covering similar terrestrial footprints to IS-4.  A number of repair teams are on standby to make the necessary adjustments to the VSAT terminals on the ground once new or revised contracts have been concluded.

* How long will that take?

- We envisage being in a position to send repair teams within the week of 8 February 2010 at the latest.

* What redundancy plans does Umoya have in cases like this?

- While it is just not practical to purchase spare capacity on permanent standby on neighbouring satellites, Umoya has ensured that relationships with a number of satellite service providers are in place such that transitioning to new satellites is possible.  Relationships with competent local technical contractors who can assist with adjustments to site equipment enhance our ability to respond in such circumstances.

* How often does this happen to satellites?

- Anomalies such as this are in general very rare.

* What impact does this have on Umoya's business?

- This obviously has a significant impact on Umoya's business as most of our customers rely on VSAT for connectivity.  We will be working around the clock to have all of our customers back on the air as soon as we possibly can.

* What other organisations are affected? 

- Anyone who was utilising transponders on IS-4 has been affected.  To the best of our knowledge there are a number of South African entities which are also striving to find alternatives.  In a market which is as under resourced as it is and eagerly awaiting the launch of new satellites over the next few years, this is no easy task.

* What can be done to avoid service interruptions like this?

- Apart from reserving and paying for space segments on alternate satellites, which dramatically increases costs, there is little one can do to prepare for satellite failures.  Umoya are in the process of planning an Earth Station to be built in Cape Town, partly to increase capacity and partly as redundancy protection for possible outages on the Midrand hub.  We will continue to maintain our good relationships with satellite service providers which allows us options in times like these.

It is time we took up the mic again and interrogated some of the team here.  Today, we decided to pick on: 

Tim Keller : Lead Developer and general software guru.

[Ed] Tim, you've been with a Umoya for a few years now, how did you get to be working here?

[Tim] I got to know Peter through Sunvalley school, he became aware I needed financial assistance to complete my university studies, took a risk and offered to fund me in return for me coming to work at Umoya. 

[Ed] Are you Cape Town born and bred?

[Tim] I am indeed.  I've lived in the same house all my life (until just recently).

[Ed] Ah yes, you've just given up bachelorhood I believe - congratulations!

[Ed] I gather your dad is head of Sunvalley Primary, is your mom also a teacher?

[Tim] My family: Teachers, Teachers and more Teachers

[Ed] I sympathise – my siblings were also all teachers.

[Ed] Have you always wanted to be a software developer?

[Tim] No, as a kid I wanted to be a .... wait for it - Teacher!  Then of course an Astronaut, Computer Engineer, then Lawyer.... the list goes on.

[Ed] Where did you study?

[Tim] The great UCT!

[Ed] [what is it about UCT students?!  Humble as anything.]

[Ed] So was it straight from school to varsity to Umoya?

[Tim] Not quite.  I've worked as: a teacher, video editor, sound engineer, and web designer.

[Ed] What are some of the things you love

[Tim] My wife (hopeless romantic I know) [Ed: don't worry, you'll get over it], Apple Macs [Ed: terrible fanboy!], photography, formula1, gadgets and (good) music.

[Ed] What do you hate?

[Tim] Hating things.

[Ed] o...k... moving right along...

[Ed] Your role in Umoya?

[Tim] Lead Developer and Systems guy for staffroom.  I created staffroom in response to my dad's frustrations with school admin, and it is now looking like being something that could gain some substantial usage in South African schools.  It helped immensely to have Umoya take staffroom under their wing.

[Ed] You're known in Umoya as...?

[Tim] Pink shirt guy.

[Ed] If you were a wild animal, what would you be?

[Tim] Meerkat (pokes head up every now and then to see the bigger picture)

[Ed] A meerkat in a pink shirt?  I'm going to let that one slide right by or the conversation might turn weird!