By: Terry Bleakley, Regional Vice President, Asia
Basic connectivity is recognized around the globe as a critical factor in driving sustainable development and economic growth. And as the internet becomes more essential to the day-to-day activities of businesses, governments and individuals, providing universal access takes on greater importance.
But how do you ensure that nearly 500 million people spread across some of the vast and geographically diverse countries of South and Southeast Asia have this access – a challenge made even more difficult because less than half live in urban areas, and thus have limited or no access to reliable services
Recognizing the impact that connectivity has on quality of life, Intelsat is dedicated to finding new and innovative ways to deliver connectivity, and the benefits that ensue, to everyone, whether they live in the most connected, modern metropolis or in the most remote regions of the world. For the people, communities and businesses across South and Southeast Asia, Intelsat and Malaysia’s edotco Group are working to provide the access essential to enabling sustainable development. Satellite operators and tower owners share a common goal of providing MNOs easy access to infrastructure and services that enable network extension and upgrade. The combination of Intelsat’s global network and edotco’s regional portfolio of more than 29,500 towers across Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan, promise to find new, fast, cost-efficient methods of delivering connectivity and new services across of Asia.
Potential applications that Intelsat and edotco can deliver include:
• cellular backhaul solutions via satellite to tower sites
• 3G and 4G end-to-end managed services that connect rural and remote areas
• creating cell site edge data centers to bring extra computing power and content to the towers across edotco’s footprint
• 5G, IoT, smart cities, wi-fi and other enterprise solutions
• disaster recovery solutions for first responders and recovery organizations
Access to reliable broadband connectivity creates opportunities for businesses, communities and individuals. It drives economic growth by empowering companies of all sizes. It delivers access to telemedicine and tele-education that improves lives. It broadens social and entertainment options that brings people close together. These opportunities are made possible to the geographically diverse countries of South and Southeast Asia when access to cost-effective, high-speed connectivity is made available to all. The combination of Intelsat and edotco’s coverage, leadership and innovation has the potential to provide the infrastructure to make this a reality.
