Connectivity Solutions Specialist in Ghana: Richard Hlomador Presents K-Net

Richard Hlomador, CEO of K-Net, presents the company, its activities and competitive advantages.

“We started as an ISP and evolved into a telecom company. We saw into the future that the mobile operators, based on technologies that were evolving, would sooner or later take over the consumer Internet space. So, we specialized ourselves into a niche for providing backbone or back-end services for consumer facing companies. For example, TV companies, mobile phone companies, and banks are the people we work for. We are a corporate service provider. Our niche and focus are for tailoring of services for corporate institutions to be able to deliver services uniquely for their consumers. In the TV sector, for example, as far back as eight or nine years ago, we provided all the key back-end services for all the analog TV operators, and then overtime we evolved them into digital TV operators. We have a digital TV platform that has been responsible for the distribution of the analog TV operators’ broadcast feed to their relay stations. This platform has evolved and became DTH (direct to home) services for these operators. We have completed the digital TV migration for the country, and have successfully migrated Ghana from analog to digital TV broadcasts. Regarding mobile phone operators, as far back as eight years ago, residents in the rural areas were denied mobile network connectivity. Most of these GSM operators have been here, but nobody looked after the rural populations because they believed it was not economically viable for them. We were the first to develop a mobile infrastructure platform for this segment that we called MRIID, which essentially delivered mobile connectivity as well as Internet access. We built a platform, of which a prototype is right here (behind me), which is solar powered and is VSAT or satellite backhauled. In a situation like that, you can install this unit anywhere, as long as there is sun and you can see the sky, and it covers 2,000 people per site. It is a 2-tier platform. The first was TV, and now we do mobile operators. Of course, we provide a lot of Internet and network connectivity for banks within the country for inter-bank operations as well as head office-to-branch operations. We also provide network connectivity solutions for several other key sectors of the economy, including government agencies, mining companies, industrial establishments, educational institutions, and so on”, says Richard Hlomador.

“The company has five key areas of operation. We have our teleport, which is at our Tech center. The Tech center is where we have deployed all the various technologies that we use in the delivery of services to our end-customers. It is a 100 x 100 m² center which serves as a data center, as well as a teleport for hosting all our satellite-based services. For instance, we monitor satellites with footprints in Africa for Global Satellite Operators so they can constantly have real-time information on how their satellites are faring in Africa. We provide Satellite uplink services for television broadcasters. In broadcasting, we operate a Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) network on behalf of the Government of Ghana, as well as a Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV network for private TV broadcasters within Ghana and neighbouring West African countries. Rural telephone is another department. We use solar-powered VSAT-backhauled systems for the delivery of GSM and Internet related services in the rural areas. We started out as an Internet Service Provider, ISP, and it is still our core business. Now, we are also into IOT service provider. IOT is an acronym for “Internet of things”, because everything is about the Internet today. We are also involved in e-commerce because if you want to provide rural telephony and reduce the cost of using the network, then you have to reduce the cost of logistics and everything else related to that. There are kiosks in these rural areas where one can go and top up phone credit, or one can do it electronically online”, he adds.

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