The $3 million project was completed on July 19, 2001 and provides direct Internet access to Philippine’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and corporate clients. Current clients on the new network include: the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Angelnet, Cybernet, the Far Eastern University, and the University of the East.
The FreedomIP system enables advanced and economical broadband services for corporate intranet/Internet services, virtual private networks (VPNs), two-way broadband Internet access, and two-way transactional services such as distance learning, E-commerce, telemedicine, and remote sensing and control.
We chose the FreedomIP VSAT platform because of its unique broadband capability, said Aristoteles Elvina, Philcomsat’s VP of Marketing. We need to grow our system as our subscriber base grows, and we must be able to easily add other services such as voice over IP, video conference over IP, and one-way video streaming. Our new system gives us the scalability and the bandwidth to handle more multimedia files. This is the first ever truly convergent IP network in the Philippines.
Philcomsat now provides Philippines-based ISPs and corporate clients with the bandwidth needed for advanced multimedia applications and brings Filipinos increased and improved Internet access. The flexibility of the new system means that Philcomsat can give ISPs the ability to configure inbound and outbound links independently, adding bandwidth as traffic requirements dictate.
Philcomsat had been seeking a supplier for a while, said Volker Lange, Andrew Corporation’s Regional Sales Manager, Asia, but found that suppliers were offering no more than 2.0 megabits per second one-way bandwidth — not enough capacity for Philcomsat’s growing needs. The FreedomIP solution enabled transmission speeds of up to 3.75 megabits per second in both the uplink and the downlink. This gave Philcomsat the initial power and scalability needed for its Internet client base. As Philcomsat’s business grows, we can easily add new nodes to the network to handle extra traffic, added Lange.
Philcomsat’s FreedomIP broadband VSAT network comprises an Andrew 7.3-meter earth station central hub node at Pinugay, with a Network Management System near Manila, and 120 broadband VSAT earth stations located throughout the Philippines. Andrew has provided full turnkey services including the earth stations, RF electronics, and program management. The network uses the standard DVB protocol for all outward transmissions (central to remote points of presence) and utilizes the FreedomIP TDMA solution for the return channel transmissions.
