Gilat Satellite Networks recently announced a string of contract wins in Asia. In Korea, Gilat signed a contract for 345 SkyStar Advantage 2-way VSATs with Korea Telecom International. These terminals will be used for a wide range of interactive data and Web-based applications in the corporate and education markets. In the Philippines, Gilat sold 159 DialAway IP VSATs for telephony and high-speed Internet connectivity to Radio Communications of the Philippines. In Mongolia, Incomnet bought 60 DialAway terminals and a hub for telephony and high-speed Internet services.

“The Asian market is important for us,” said Barry Spielman, spokesperson for Gilat Satellite Networks. “It is our third market after the United States and Latin America and is exhibiting steady growth. The Asian market accounted for 7 per cent of our sales in 1999 and increased to 13 per cent in 2001. One of our largest markets in Asia is India … Gilat captured 70 per cent of the market for TDMA VSATs in the period April 2001 to March 2002.”

Spielman added: “We won these contracts because the overall package was very attractive. In particular, we have a very high market share in rural telephony. We have more systems deployed around the world than anyone else, the technology is simple and can be rolled-out quickly. You could say that rural telephony is a niche market, it is certainly not high growth, but growth should increase as deregulation increases. A lot of the business is to serve universal service obligations for telcos. We expect to capture more business as the pace of deregulation increases in Asia.”

Gilat’s flagship model is the SkyStar Advantage, which is a large enterprise product designed for networks with several hundred or several thousand sites. Recently, Gilat has developed new terminals, such as the 360E, to target the SME markets. These have sold well in Asia. Gilat has deployed more than 10 VSAT networks incorporating the 360E in the past six months. Some more recent contracts include one with Indian service provider HCL Comnet Ltd. for a 360E hub and 500 terminals. Gilat has supplied 360Es to other Indian service providers, such as Bharti Broadband Networks and Comsat Max.

–Gareth Owen