The new terms to the agreements include the removal of thousands of telephony sites which are no longer needed or used by the rural population in Colombia, the upgrade of technology, primarily in existing sites, entailing additional capital expenditure by Gilat, modification of the terms of the agreements, the release of approximately $24m from trust accounts and a release by each of the parties from all prior claims under the previous agreements.
The company expects that most of the amount in the trusts will be released during 2009, with the remaining amount to be released in 2010.
Amiram Levinberg, CEO and chairman of the board at Gilat Satellite Networks, said: We are hopeful that these newly negotiated agreements will better meet the needs of the Colombian rural populations and will also enable Gilat to be properly paid for services provided.
Earlier in November, Incomnet has added Gilat’s SkyAbis cellular backhaul system to its satellite communications network to serve Mongolia’s mobile operators. Gilat’s SkyAbis is a prepackaged system for cellular backhaul, based on the SkyEdge multi-service platform.
