Retail outlets, shopping malls, gas stations and major eateries that do not need a constant Internet connection, can benefit from a commercially attractive option, achieved through high utilization of low bandwidth. Transactional applications, such as Point-of-Sale and ATMs where there are short-sharp bursts of traffic that traverse the bandwidth very quickly, can be managed using Gateway’s AfricaConnect for Retail.
Many of the IT applications used by the retail sector are not response-time dependent, such as the uploading and downloading of store information which can be performed after hours, or end-of-day statistics, product price specials, display adverts which can be scheduled for regular out of hours updates, so that multiple remote sites can access and share the same bandwidth.
“The reality is most retail outlets don’t need a dedicated link to be online 24x7. There are certain transactions that need to happen – but they do not have to be in real time and they do not have to take place at the same time for each outlet. Sharing a link among branches is far more cost effective – not least in a time when retailers are struggling with the current financial environment,” said Geoff Hardwick, managing director, Gateway Communications, Southern Africa.
The AfricaConnect for Retail product is based upon VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) technology, using both C band and the Ku band spectrum of satellite, which can be deployed at any and every location in South Africa. For South African companies working anywhere within the SADC region or the wider African continent, the same solution can be deployed and managed and controlled in South Africa.
“We see this product evolving to function as a back-up for when the primary, often terrestrial, link is down,” continued Hardwick. “It is very difficult to get alternate terrestrial connectivity for back-up in remote locations and repair times are generally quite slow due to problems of access. Using a product like AfricaConnect for Retail, a number of remote sites can be backed up with a pool of low bandwidth, giving management and HQ the assurance that neither operations, nor customer service will be affected.”