...to support Russia's national presidential elections held March 4, 2012. Gilat was selected for the project by Russian-based service provider RTComm, the satellite service arm of Rostelecom Group (MICEX & RTS:RTKM, RTKMP) (OTCQX:ROSYY), Russia's national telecommunications operator. Russia's presidential elections were broadcasted online with live video streaming to provide visibility of the election sites, registration tables and ballot boxes. The web based system, for which Gilat provided a significant portion of the satellite based connectivity, was designed to provide Russian citizens, international press and people the world over with real-time access to the election process. The Russian Ministry of Communications reported that on the day of the presidential elections over 3.5 million viewers accessed the online broadcast of the voting process.
Tasked with enabling the secure and reliable transfer of broadcasting data from the election venues to central servers located around Russia, Gilat provided VSAT connectivity to more than 1,600 of the voting sites. RTComm chose satellite based connectivity as the optimal communication platform for locations lacking terrestrial or high-speed connectivity required for video-based broadcasting. The limited time frame allotted for the project deployment was an additional component in their decision to make satellite-based connectivity for technology solution to provide video-based communication in those locations. In order to cover the vast geographic spread of the Russian republic and allow sufficient capacity, Satellite resources for the project were provided by seven different satellites, and required the reconfiguration of Gilat's existing eight hubs used by Russian operators and located throughout the country. Gilat Satellite Networks company information link