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Spotlight: Restaurant Chain Enjoys Broadband Buffet

By Staff Writer | August 4, 2003

      The family restaurant chain Golden Corral is deploying a variety of satellite broadband services much the way it offers a wide selection of food with its buffet-style dining. Satellite broadband will operate a range of IP-based applications that include high-speed credit authorization, point-of-sale polling and Web-based back-office services.

      The broadband service provider will be Spacenet, the U.S. subsidiary of Petah Tikva, Israel-based Gilat Satellite Networks [Nasdaq: GILTF]. An agreement between the companies calls for the service to begin immediately.

      Golden Corral CIO Don Clark said, “While the [Spacenet] Connexstar service enables us to deploy a wide range of applications, perhaps the most important immediate benefit will come from a significant improvement in the speed of point-of-sale credit authorization. Because our customers pay for their meals upon entering our restaurant, fast credit authorization is critical to ensure they are seated quickly.”

      The dial-up method currently used requires up to 28 seconds of wait time, but Golden Corral restaurants using Spacenet’s service will be able to secure credit authorizations in less than seven seconds, Clark said. With heavy point-of-sale traffic depending on a single connection, it was important to find a broadband connection that would be extremely robust and reliable, he added. –Paul Dykewicz

      (Don Clark, Golden Corral, 919/781-9310; Fritz Stolzenbach, Spacenet, 703-848-1175)