General News
Core Design Principles of Next Generation Integrated Remote Connectivity for Broadband Services
By Andrew Aroh
Turnkey Broadband Network solutions exist for connecting remote sites into the network where reliable internet or leased lines services are not readily available. The solution for the remote connectivity services bring secure voice, data and video services to remote sites, increasing user productivity and integrating remote and local operations.
Remote connectivity solution ensure that distant customers, field employees and partners share the benefits of access to information and services, while maintaining security measures.
Through the Integration of Terrestrial Wireless, Fiber and Satellite Communications, ICT professionals can design, and deliver a customized solution that is optimized for cost efficiency, performance and flexibility.
Creating a Customer Solution
A dedicated team is appointed for every aspect of the project:
- Systems Analysis
- The Initial Design & Review
- The final Design
- Supplier Selection
- Licensing Application
- Site Surveys
- Procurement
- Staging
- Deployment
- Testing
- Network Management and Support
End- to-end designs often include over-sight projects and the integration of data networks with radio systems or microwave/ satellite systems.
Matching business needs to the platform technologies requires an understanding of the role of the network link.
The analysis and design phase matches business requirements and customer applications to the most appropriate technologies.
The required solution provides a secure, global broadband infrastructure through high-speed networks of terrestrial wireless, Fiber and Satellite connectivity, local partnering networks and network operations centers/Gateways.
Properly engineered solutions for remote connectivity services will offer:
- Global voice, data and video communication to remote offices, residents and SMEs.
- Requirement analysis and technology-independent design to determine the most appropriate solution for remote location connectivity.
- End-to-end solutions for design, project management and deployment, including integration of radio systems with microwave/Satellite network systems and applications.
- Proven project management methodologies ensuring that project are delivered on time, within budget and client-agreed specifications.
- Suite of services on the platform allows customers to leverage the expertise and partnerships that extend support across a wide range of broadband technologies.
Broadband technology offers single site, portable communications for short projects, data to Gigabytes range with voice and video.
- VSAT technology offers access to a wide range of cost-effective; satellite-based services regardless of location.
- SCPC technology offers point-to-point solutions for longer projects, a full range of data options for multiple voice channels and high performance data and video.
- Fast deployment options are available for short-term projects, typically up to 2048kbps with a maximum of 100Mbps.
- TDMA-(VBM/MF) technology offers solutions that are particularly valuable in regions with little infrastructure, yet requiring a fully-meshed operating environment.
- The solution is suitable for medium to long-term projects with bit-rates up to 8x2048kbps possible and well-suited to busty applications.
- Traffic can vary dynamically using SCPC or TDMA techniques, such as data plus occasional video conferencing, providing cost-effective bandwidth management.
- To enable the promise of the digital enterprise, emerging broadband Network solutions combines:
- Specialized technologies
- Domain experience
- Global infrastructure
- Supported by industry –certified technical consulting capabilities, the growing suite of services provides:
- Secure global IP infrastructure
- Integrated information security solutions
- Wireless and remote network connectivity
- Complete network managed services.
Secure Connectivity Centers Provide Secure Broadband Gateways: Creating a flexible center:
- Secure connectivity centers can be configured with several powerful options to add features and performance as business requirement grow:
- A redundancy module is available to eliminate any single secure point of failure.
- Reporting options allow central monitoring of security policy modifications and enforcement.
- The Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity module brings all of the other capabilities of the secure connectivity center to VPN configurations, providing the same elements of secure connectivity that protect dedicated Intranets and
- The secure connectivity center can be designed to function smoothly as a complete turnkey solution, installed on an enterprise’s premise and operated by the organization’s ICT professionals.
- We provide essential skills transfer to bring ICT professionals up to speed on the exceptional capabilities of this innovative approach to security management.
- The secure connectivity center offers:
- A remarkable reduction in deployment time, allowing an enterprise to stay well ahead of the competition and the technology curve.
- A quick-time-to-market and a more rapid addition and removal of new services and partner connections, which can be a powerful enabler in a growing e-business enterprise.
- Protected connectivity between multiple customers and multiple services in multiple locations.
This is because as an organization grows, more network connections and greater demands on functionality create exponentially greater costs for management and administration of security policies and procedures.
Many companies take a piecemeal approach, adding new firewalls and security protocols on an incremental basis, resulting in bewildering management complexity.
However, a secure connectivity center enables protected connectivity between multiple customers and multiple services in multiple locations.
- This flexible, centralized management and control system replaces a myraid of individual security solutions with an integrated, network-wide implementation allowing end-to-end solutions from corporate web access to multi-system connectivity.
- Secure connectivity centers provide secure broadband gateways to the internet with centrally managed application and database sharing, providing an unparallel level of sophistication and flexibility.
- Enterprises today are also faced with increasing demand to access and share applications and data.
Secure connectivity centers simplify Network sharing i.e. simply secure interconnection of networks with incompatible routing or address conflicts, and create secure enclaves that can extend geographically to sites anywhere an enterprise does business.
In General, secure connectivity centers offers:
- Lower cost of management for multiple business partners networks
- A proven, turnkey solution for complex extranet problems
- Reduced time-to-market and time-to-savings for secure, multi-network connectivity
- Easy to manage control for enterprise-wide security
- A powerful enabler for security-critical e-business opportunities
- Secure, seamless connections for multiple partners, locations and platforms
- Integration into a Secure Private Network
Managed VPN Broadband Services Provide Secure Connectivity with remote or mobile locations
- Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a restricted network that uses public domain to connect nodes, providing a way to encapsulate, or ‘’tunnel’’ private data cheaply, reliably, and securely through a public network, usually the internet.
- The development of VPN technologies provides new opportunities to leverage the universal availability of the INTERNET for even the most security-critical streams of network communication.
- Traffic that formally moved over dedicated lines now travels securely over public infrastructure.
- To ensure security through this powerful business enabler called VPN, emerging broadband solutions can bring together all the essential resources, including:
- Firewalls
- Public key Infrastructure (PKI) encryption
- Remote authentication with smart cards.
- A host of other complex and evolving technologies.
- Keeping mobile employees connected to business-critical data, applications and project-team collaboration channels is becoming increasingly essentials.
- Again, moving extranet traffic to a VPN often results in significant cost savings, especially for business with widespread locations and highly mobile users.
- The broadband solutions can provide exceptional resources and field-tested solutions for reaching mobile locations.
- A broadband managed VPN uses an extensive network of local resources and leverages firsthand knowledge of reliable vendors, products and services.
- Independence from particular software and hardware vendors allows a business to bring exactly the right technologies together to meet an enterprise’s unique and specific VPN needs.
- Whether linking a limited number of desktop sites to network resources or integrating hundreds of sites and thousands of users in a multinational deployment, managed broadband VPN solution offers unmatched flexibility in creating effective and innovative virtual private network solutions.
Creating the Most Reliable Managed VPN Services:
- Managed VPN services select and manage the most reliable internet service providers to offer the best-in-class service
- By optimizing local internet infrastructure and managing compliance with the bewildering array of regulations, the required broadband solution creates an effective solution for enterprises needing reliable, site-to-site VPN capabilities as part of the total enterprise connectivity scheme.
- Managed VPN services provide greater flexibility in responding to immediate e-business opportunities and enable the establishment of secure connectivity with remote or mobile locations where dedicated infrastructure would be cost-prohibitive or logistically impossible.
- Therefore, broadband solutions with managed VPN services offer:
- Utilization of existing internet infrastructure and bandwidth for secure connectivity.
- The ability to add and change sites quickly for project-specific connectivity.
- Lower operating costs without compromising intellectual property or network security.
- A Secure network for rapid growth and seamless migration to new technologies.
- Maintenance of quality-of-service (QoS) and improved service level agreements (SLAs).
Quality-of-service evaluations are required to determine system performance and optimization.
Broadband IP Networking Solutions
- There are currently so many business sites and locations out of reach of land-based broadband connections around the world, including Nigeria.
- These locations need cost-efficient solutions to turn their businesses
- Different approach to delivering broadband IP networking via satellite delivers a high-performance private, secure and cost-effective way for organizations to extend the reach of broadband IP network to locations that are currently not cost-effectively served by land-based services.
- Emerging Satellite Access Modems address a large, underserved and fast growing market for business, government, agencies, carriers and other organizations seeking an expedient way to develop or extend broadband IP networks.
- Emerging High-performance, satellite-based IP networking delivers services that are:
- Ubiquitous:
No location on the planet is beyond reach
- Simple:
Ease of deployment and implementation, with self-installation
- Safe:
Private, secure and reliable networking solution
- Profitable:
- Cost-effectively extends the reach of smaller IP networks
- The solution requires no acquisition of large infrastructure
- Improves corporate communications and productivity by enabling better and faster decisions through access to real-time information.
- High Growth:
- New revenue opportunities for users through instantaneous, around-the-clock access to information from all business sites, no matter what location.
- Channel partners win by being able to deploy a new product in a large and underserved market that was not accessible previously.
- Emerging IP networking solutions requires businesses to extend the reach of any broadband IP network to remote locations, rural and sub-urban areas for the benefit of:
- Internet service providers
- Telecom carriers
- Corporations
- Governments
- Communities
- Multi-site organizations
- Competitive advantage based on technology:
- To achieve expected level of performance, virtual Bandwidth Manager (core proprietary) technology combines a state-of-the-art Software Defined Radio (SDR) Platform which provides greater flexibility and performance.
- The integration comes together as New Satellite Access Modem. Which address a large, underserved and fast growing market for:
- Businesses
- Government agencies in the rural and remote areas of the states
- Carriers
- Other organizations
- All these need an expedient way to develop or extend broadband IP networks.
CORE DESIGN PRINCIPLES DRIVE INNOVATION FOR NGNs
The overarching development philosophy is simple: make it efficient. Make it scalable. Make it work anyplace, anytime no matter what the connectivity requirements.
Satellite innovative technology is developed to a universal set of requirements to enable service providers to meet any customer need, no matter the application, bandwidth, and satellite or topology.
INTELLIGENT PLATFORM WITH ENDLESS IP APPLICATIONS
The intelligent platform is a single, integrated scalable communications system that enables service providers to meet any customer requirement. It integrates advanced, technology into a portfolio of hubs, routers and network management software to answer the growing complexity of deploying and managing global IP networks.
- Software: integrates advanced features throughout the entire product portfolio: advanced IP Routing, Automated Beam Switching, Global NMS, Security, Quality-of-service, spread spectrum.
- Hubs: a range of universal satellite hubs provides network operations with greater flexibility to deliver the highest-level connectivity regardless of application, bandwidth, and satellite or network topology.
- Remote Routers: a series of routers designed to suit the needs of any size organization as a ‘’single-box’’ all-in-one solution.
- Network Management System: a complete suite of highly intuitive software-based tools for configuring, monitoring and controlling satellite networks from one location.
So, how do we summarize the design principles?
- Everything is Integrated:
An integrated system brings greater choice and control from configuration to deployment and maintenance
- Efficiency Rules:
We apply the industry’s most ambitious, aggressive approach toward delivering better and better bandwidth efficiency.
- Scalability Pays:
The required product port folio enables service providers to enter markets affordably, scale quickly to seize new business opportunities and stay one step ahead of competition
- Flexibility Matters:
Customers can act quickly, prioritizing bandwidth and applications on the fly with zero barriers.
- Intuitive Management Takes Priority :
This brings ‘’Big Data’’ into play, making management of large, complex global networks second nature.
- Staying Ahead:
While some retail locations must wait for high-speed terrestrial circuits to arrive before opening their doors, others don’t waste any time. They use satellite technology for all voice, data and video applications immediately, opening stores for business faster.
Andrew Aroh is President of SSPI Nigeria
In total, African countries lost 60 million euros in rejected Schengen visa fees in 2024, analysis from the LAGO Collective has shown.
According to CNN, when Joel Anyaegbu’s application for a Schengen visa to travel to Barcelona was denied late last year, he was surprised but immediately reapplied.
He sent in more documents than were required, including bank statements and proof of property ownership in Nigeria.
He was rejected again.
“The information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay were not reliable,” read a checklist returned with his passport from the Spanish consulate in Lagos. The 32-year-old gaming consultant said he felt humiliated.
“I had to cancel meetings with partners at the conference I was attending,” he told CNN.
“I emailed the embassy to understand why I was denied but it has not been answered to date.”
Anyaegbu’s was among the 50,376 short-stay Schengen visa applications rejected in Nigeria last year, nearly half of all submissions, according to newly released data from the European Commission.
Applicants worldwide pay a non-refundable visa fee of 90 euros (about $100), so Nigerians alone lost over 4.5 million euros (about $5 million) seeking permission to travel to the 29 European countries that make up the Schengen Area.
In total, African countries lost 60 million euros ($67.5 million) in rejected Schengen visa fees in 2024, analysis from the LAGO Collective showed.
The London-based research and arts organization has been monitoring data on European short-term visas since 2022 and said Africa is the continent worst affected by the cost of visa rejections.
“The poorest countries in the world pay the richest countries in the world money for not getting visas,” its founder Marta Foresti told CNN.
“As in 2023, the poorer the country of application, the higher the rejection rates. African countries are disproportionately affected with rejection rates as high as 40-50% for countries like Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria.”
She says this proves “inbuilt discrimination and bias” in the process.
A European Commission spokesperson told CNN that member states consider visa applications on a case-by-case basis.
“Each file is assessed by experienced decision-makers on its own merits, in particular regarding the purpose of stay, sufficient means of subsistence, and the applicants’ will to return to their country of residence after a visit to the EU,” the spokesperson said via email.
Africans have long complained about inconsistent, sometimes baffling decisions about who gets approved or denied while applying for European visas.
Cameroonian Jean Mboulé was born in France but when he applied for a visa in 2022 alongside his wife using similar documents, his application was rejected but hers was not.
“At the time she was unemployed but with a South African passport. She had no income but received a visa on the back of my financial statement,” he told CNN.
“But the embassy said they refused my application because my documents were fake, and they weren’t sure I would come back to South Africa, where I am a permanent resident, if I went to France.”
The 39-year-old regional executive took legal action in French courts and won, forcing the French embassy in Johannesburg to grant his visa and pay him a fine of 1,200 euros.
He told an administrative tribunal in the French city of Nantes that the embassy’s decision to deny him a visa was “tainted by insufficient reasoning.”
Mboulé pointed out that he had provided sufficient guarantees that he would return at the end of his trip to his wife and daughter in South Africa where he owns a building. After he got the visa, he chose to go to Mauritius instead as he didn’t want to spend his money in France.
The EU said its member states consider visa applications on a case-by-case basis.
The Cameroonian’s case is unique as many Africans denied Schengen visas rarely appeal or contest the decisions in court.
Like Anyaegbu, the Nigerian gaming consultant, they often reapply, losing more money in the process.
Mboulé has travelled several times to the UK and other African countries but was still denied twice for Schengen.
“The financial cost of rejected visas is just staggering; you can think of them as ‘reverse remittances,’ money flowing from poor to rich countries, which we never hear about,” the LAGO Collective’s Foresti says.
Schengen visa fees increased from 80 to 90 euros in July 2024, making it even more expensive for the world’s poorest applicants.
But South African management lecturer Sikhumbuzo Maisela said the visa rejection rates for Africans were lower than he expected.
“The visa vetting process seems to be shaped less by outright prejudice and more by historical patterns of behaviour,” he told CNN via email.
“Western countries have had instances where visa holders overstayed or violated terms, and this has influenced how future applications are scrutinized.”
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has partnered with Standard Chartered to bolster local currency financing for private enterprises in emerging markets.
Standard Chartered will provide local currency loans to IFC in selected markets, which IFC will subsequently on-lend to private-sector projects.
The inaugural transaction under this collaboration is a loan of 9 billion Kenyan shillings (equivalent to approximately 70 million US dollars) to IFC, which will support the advancement of digital infrastructure in Kenya.
“With exchange rate volatility and rising debt pressures the need for local currency financing in emerging markets has become increasingly evident. When businesses borrow in the same currency as their revenues, they can concentrate on growth instead of exchange rate fluctuations,” said John Gandolfo, IFC Vice President and Treasurer, Treasury & Mobilization. “As we increase our local currency financing abilities, we plan to replicate this facility in other currencies across the globe.”
Sunil Kaushal, Global Co-Head, Corporate & Investment Banking, and CEO, ASEAN and South Asia markets, Standard Chartered said: “This landmark transaction in Kenya reflects our commitment to supporting financial resilience in local markets.
By partnering with IFC, we’re delivering local currency solutions that help corporates in emerging markets manage currency volatility and access the long-term capital they need to grow. With our deep roots and liquidity access across emerging markets, we are well positioned to scale this initiative and enable more businesses to access stable financing options.”
Kariuki Ngari, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Kenya and Africa, Standard Chartered said: “This partnership represents a pivotal step forward in enhancing Africa’s financial resilience. By facilitating local currency financing, we not only address one of the most significant challenges facing the businesses across the continent – exchange rate vitality – but also open up new avenues for long term economic growth.
Kenya’s digital infrastructure sector is particularly well positioned to benefit from this inaugural transaction, setting the stage for scalable and sustainable financing solutions. These models will drive economic growth and empower local enterprises supporting prosperity across Africa.”
Exchange rate volatility presents a risk for companies that borrow in hard currency, such as the US dollar, but get paid in local currency.
Many local companies in emerging markets lack the capacity to effectively manage these currency risks. Therefore, securing local currency financing at competitive rates with flexible features is increasingly important to meet the growing need for diverse financing options among local companies.
IFC has increased its collaboration with global, regional and local banks to provide more local currency financing to clients. The organization has offered local currency products—such as loans and bonds, structured finance products, and risk-management solutions since the early 1990s.
Between FY15 and FY24, IFC committed local currency senior debt financing of over $30 billion US dollars in 67 local currencies through loans and bonds, structured products, and risk-management solutions.
In line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to enhance governance for effective service delivery, and with NITDA asserting its mandate as the clearing house for all government Information Technology, (IT) projects, the Agency has taken the campaign on the imperative of scrutinizing IT projects of the Federal Public Institutions to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Office of the Auditor General of the Federation and Bureau of Public Procurement.
The visit focused on the presentation of NITDA’s Reviewed IT Project Clearance Guidance Document—an updated framework designed to standardise the planning, funding, and execution of IT projects in line with national digital economy goals.
The document, a revision of the 2018 Guidelines for Clearance of IT Projects, emphasises cost-effectiveness, regulatory compliance, and transparency, reinforcing NITDA’s role as the clearing house for all government IT initiatives under the National Information Technology Development Act (2007.)
During these visits, NITDA’s Director General emphasised that the Agency cannot work in isolation to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda of transforming the economy digitally. “And we need to explore how we can strengthen our partnerships and collaborations in line with the President’s agenda.”
He averred that there is need to be more focused and intentional in the implementation of IT projects if the country wants to maintain its leading position in Africa. “56 percent IT projects failed to deliver on what were promised because we go for latest technology, and failure to design before building the technology and lack of consideration for the business value proposition we are trying to deliver with the projects, he decried.
Inuwa informed his hosts that in order to safeguard against that, NITDA has reviewed the IT Clearance Guideline because experience has shown that most Ministries, Departments and Agencies build IT projects based on the proposal submitted to them by the contractors who would design the projects, implement them and operate them which give no room for accountability and transparency and that has led to the failure of many IT projects.
“We are building a digitised government service; and government is one. We need to work together, work harmoniously, the same way IT system works to deliver these services. For us to achieve this, we need to be more intentional in the way we design, and implement. And if we continue to design and implement in silos, they will never worked together, he warned.
He maintained that the idea behind the reviewed guideline is to ensure that IT projects are designed in line in line with the mindset of interoperability in order for Ministries Departments and Agencies, (MDAs) to explore shared services and follow the best practices and standard.
“The guideline will guide MDAs on how to design, operate and how to maintain system because building of these systems is beyond technology but people, processes and key components of that are paramount.
According to the Director General, the proposed guideline has three steps of IT projects implementations which are; the Solution Design, the Implementation and Quality Assurance steps. He added that going forward; contractors are required to get license and certified employees on these three steps for their companies before government’s IT projects could be awarded to them.
“These measures are designed to eliminate corruption, prevent duplication, and ensure that government IT initiatives are structured to create meaningful change—fostering efficiency, equity, and fairness in public service.”
At the Bureau of Public Procurement, the Director General, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun stressed the significance of standardising IT Project Bidding Documents. He remarked, “It is disheartening that organisations misuse IT projects to siphon public funds—resources that could otherwise be channeled towards impactful initiatives that can transform the country.
He disclosed that MDAs come with IT projects that were adopted without standardisation and guideline “but with this new guideline our decision should pave ways for the development of the IT sector of the country.”
While describing the meeting as crucial to eradicate corruption in the implementation of IT projects, he noted that because most IT projects component are intangible, official leverage them to siphon public fund, adding that the Bureau has developed a standard bidding document for the IT procurement.
He said, “We have huge responsibility with NITDA to avoid corruption, duplication of IT projects and ensure transparency and accountability in the award of IT projects for the Federal Public Institutions. It is disheartening that we are consuming resources that can be deployed to meet other needs of the country and we need to stop this and say no to wastage.”
He tasked NITDA to reconsider service-wide procurement of licenses of organisations like Microsoft, Oracle and others, and also develop a template for IT Price Intelligence which the Bureau can rely on for costing. “We are not IT experts, if NITDA can help us with data on the prices of IT related products which can serve as benchmark for pricing, it will go a long way in our review.
Dr Adedokun equally canvassed for capacity building for the government’s staff in IT cadre so they would not be outsmarted by contractors.
Both NITDA and BPP agreed to constitute a working committee that would work out modalities for the realisation of the entire intended plan and sign a Memorandum of Understanding on its implementation.
At the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, the Auditor General of the Federation, Shaakaa Kanyitor Chira, remarked that NITDA needs to be commended for its thoughtfulness for bringing the guideline forward for its review and inputs.
He assured that once the policy becomes operational, the Office of the Auditor General will conduct a performance audit to assess whether it is effectively contributing to the betterment of the country.
Similarly, the Accountant General, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, commended NITDA’s efforts to standardise IT project implementation and expressed readiness to support the integration of the clearance guidelines into financial processes.
By presenting the Reviewed IT Project Clearance Guidance Document, NITDA aims to ensure that the AGF’s financial oversight aligns with its vision of a digitally transformed public sector. The collaboration is expected to enhance service delivery, curb inefficiencies, and position Nigeria as a leader in technology-driven governance.
It could be recalled that NITDA, in 2018 unveiled the Guideline for IT Project Clearance and the Agency has been able to save over N300 billion for the country in its effort at clearing IT project.
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