Taide, a subsidiary of Telenor Satellite Services, announced Monday the opening a new international telecommunications gateway in Nairobi, Kenya.
The new gateway, a joint project with local service provider Kenya Data Networks (KDN), now offers a carrier-class alternative to the Kenyan marketplace for international communications. Upon opening, the facility immediately began serving customers, with more than 50 percent of the capacity already in use.
The gateway provides Internet service providers (ISP), calling card operators and corporate customers international Internet Protocol (IP) access for Internet services and virtual private networks (VPN) as well as access to the international public switched telephone network (PSTN) over IP.
Located at the Kenya Data Networks building in Nairobi, which serves as the main communications center for Kenyan ISPs, the Taide gateway features fully-redundant operations over satellites in the Intelsat and New Skies systems.
“Kenya is already a major hub in this region both in transport and international aviation, and there is no reason why it should not also be the same in terms of information and communications technology,” said Kjell Harald Dalen, Norwegian Ambassador to Kenya.
“I believe this can be a major step toward bringing Kenya up to an international level in interconnectivity, something that will be important both for business and for those of us who either have a professional or personal need to use this form of communication.”
“Africa is experiencing double digit growth in international telecommunications and with recently liberalized telecommunications laws in Kenya, we are extremely pleased to team with Kenya Data Networks to build this gateway,” said Stefano Vittor, managing director for Taide.
“By combining efforts with KDN we now offer Kenyans a competitive international telecommunications service – from local infrastructure and customer support to international connectivity and global Internet access.”
