Making Business Sense
It is Afsat’s understanding, expectation and experience that customers require solutions that enable them to focus on their business – this is Afsat’s promise. Afsat’s expertise is in designing, installing and operating networks that suit customer requirements whether large or small. This can include trade-offs between the use of:
Ku versus C-band | TDMA, FTDMA, DAMA versus dedicated access techniques | STAR verus MESH network topologies | Various modulation techniques | Forward Error Correction and coding schemes and the consideration of various antenna sizes. Customer satisfaction is a key driver for Afsat and has proven successful across all attributes. To keep up with changing customer demands, continuous customer surveys are carried out. Target benchmarks are applied on an annual basis. From these surveys Afsat has received a 90% customer satisfaction rating – a global standard.

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VSAT Communication The Way To Go
"We need to maintain some quality of service parameters, which has to do with speed, traffic and the overall health of that link. How we do it is that from our end to the customers end there has to be an agreed speed", says Afsat's Chief Technical Officer — Job Ndege. Ndege adds that VSAT connections are reputed to be reliable in addition to most other forms of Internet access employing the technology at the final point of connection due to lack of terrestrial infrastructure. "The cost of a satellite link does not depend on where you are. Two points on teh satellite, be they one metre apart or across the globe, essentially require the same amount of bandwidth to service them."

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The Satellite Way Is Our Best Bet
When it comes to broadband internet acess, Salim Suleman is betting on satellites. Eighteen months ago, Salim Suleman received licenses form the Communications Commission of Kenya to offer VSAT services in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda had issued him similar licenses to his firm in 1992 and 1993 respectively, and Angola much earlier. The delay and frustrations of licensing regime in Kenya aside, he is happy with the way the market has turned out for Afsat Communications, the company he founded with the aim of revolutionising internet access services in Africa.

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Afsat Scores With Managed Services
Betty Mwangi, Chief Marketing Officer says, "The reason we prefer to be considered as a communications provider is that markets tend to stereotype solutions based on the technology used. In this case VSAT has been perceived as a rural or remote solution whilst in actual fact, over 70% of our VSAT based solutions are deployed in urban areas. She adds that VSAT technology is a reliable solution though it is vital for the market to know that technology alone does not provide good service. Afsat has tailored its services based on the needs of the Kenyan market. Afsat's service is branded iWay and has been positioned uniquely in the market that the customer is satisfied with the throghput speed. Afsat has a presence in 26 African countries through a distributor and subsidiary network of 32 partners with over 30,000 corporate users connected on over 4,000 VSAt terminal with prospects of expanding the distributor network to cover the whole continent.

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Business Quality Broadband Internet for Africa
Over 70% of Afsat’s clientele are urban based, which is proof that VSAT technology is not only suited for rural solutions, a common misconception. iWay is a unique product in the African market and provides minimum download speed for all iWay users. It is a fast reliable Internet Access solution that focuses on network sizing and traffic prioritization to provide a consistent, high speed Internet Service for Afsat’s customers’ mail, data and voice communications. In addition, iWay offers toll quality, extremely low cost Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls on dedicated channels – costing only US$0.05 per minute to the USA and UK. Afsat is a world class international satellite service provider and offers technical support, customer care and service delivery that are amongst the best in Africa. Our key resource is our personnel, who provide the technical expertise and customer service dedication that is required to manage a network of Afsat’s size.

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iWay News | Archive

Edition 10 "Expanded Coverage" | Apr-May 2007

Edition 9 "Simply Powerful" | Feb-Mar 2007

Edition 8 " The Next Level - Service Delivery" | Nov-Dec 2006

Edition 7 "Customer Satisfaction" | Sep - Oct 2006

Edition 6 "Taking You to New Heights" | June - Aug 2006

Edition 5 "On Top of Our Game" | March - May 2006