Hilda Esin
7 November 2007
Lagos — Gilat Satcom Nigeria which has already secured an operating licence for International Data Access (IDA) from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has opened a Nigerian office.
Chief Executive Officer of Gilat Satcom, Mr. Roy Hess in an interactive session with newsmen stressed that the firm is coming into the country to make a difference in the Nigerian telecommunications sector. He stressed that its licence will enable Gilat Satcom, a subsidiary of Gilat Satcom of Israel leverage on its expertise in satellite communications business for the benefits of Nigerians.
The company he said decided to open its office in Nigeria "because this market is very important to us."
"We are happy to be in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular," Hess said.
In his comments, Executive Vice President, (Sales and Marketing), Mr. Avihu Bergman said, since Eurocom acquired 76 per cent shares of Gilat Satcom "our desire has been to grow businesses of our customers in the regions of the world."
He said Gilat Satcom is quoted on the London Stock Exchange while Eurocom is the largest telecommunications group in Israel with major stakes in satellite TV communications and internet gold in Israel .
"Our strategy is to grow businesses and the result of this strategy is opening shop in Nigeria to work closely with our resellers."
Gilat Satcom has 15 resellers one of which is Getachus Network. Bergman explained that Gilat Satcom's hosting the yearly resellers forum to acquaint its dealers in Nigeria with the latest technology and to provide incentives to handle after sales support in technical, marketing and commercial areas. "Gilat Satcom is here to create a major impact and set closer to its customers, by giving the local market the flavour and experience of satellite communications", he said.
On the NCC licence, Bergman said, it gives us the opportunity to provide robust, inexpensive internet services taking care of data and voice transmission via the Kuband."
He said, Gilat Satcom is aware of the major capacity problem in satellite transmission "so we want to bridge all that by working closely with Intelsat and other transmission providers to provide services to our customers."
"We have grown steadily in Africa in the last few years as pioneer coverage service provider. So we have enough capacity to give to our customers.
"The licence from NCC will grant us the opportunity to offer better services, hire more local hands to provide international services," Bergman explained.
He said Gilat Satcom does not limit itself to satellite communication "but provide services to our customers through available channels".
He said the company is trying to bridge the gap because the demand by data and TV applications is high mobile operators have also made a huge demand while DSTV, GSM, internet connectivity creates a big toll on the available space segment so, "we have to create the opportunity to service this."
Bergman explained that because of this, "demand in the last few months has more than tripled" so much that we need to beef up the service system."
Gilat Satcom has more than 500 sites in Nigeria alone and provides services to Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) through Intelsat 907 satellite.
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