Client: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI)
Project: DETI Upgrade & Re-point Project - Provision of Remote Broadband Services in Northern Ireland

Background

In March 2004, delivering on a programme for government commitment to ensure that all of Northern Ireland has a world class telecommunications infrastructure in terms of broadband capacity, access and cost, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) awarded a 5-year contract to BT. This contract  would ensure that a minimum of 512kbps broadband access was available to every home and business in Northern Ireland (if they wanted it) by the end of 2005.

As a result of this contract, Northern Ireland became the first region in the UK (and Europe) to have 100% broadband coverage in December 2005. The Contract, which came to an end in March 2009, is service driven and technology neutral, meaning that BT could decide on the most appropriate technology to use to deliver the services.

For over 99% of the population of Northern Ireland, broadband is delivered via telephone lines. For the remainder the service is delivered via satellite. This mainly affects those located in remote rural areas where distance from the nearest telephone exchange means that a fixed-line broadband solution is not possible. When the contract ended so did the satellite service.

Recognising the importance to the economy of the continued availability of broadband communications at affordable prices, DETI, following a competitive procurement process, put in place a further three-year contract for the delivery of broadband services to those that cannot currently access such services via a telephone line. 

1. Under the contract Avanti will deliver a range of satellite broadband services to residential and business customers across Northern Ireland for whom it is not yet possible to access broadband services via a fixed-line solution.

Summary

Avanti Communications contracted Remote Technical Services to address the problem of maintaining a    continuous service for DETI’s Clients in Northern Ireland. Remote Technical Services put in place an upgrade programme for Avanti communications that included the replacement of the Transmission and reception hardware, at the same time RDS designed, tested and implemented a modification to the existing 75cm Antenna’s already in place to keep migration costs to a minimum for our Client.

The direct satellite service is provided using a two way VSAT hub network connected to a two way Satellite Interactive Terminal installed at the customer's premises. The Terminal is fully compliant with the Digital Video Broadcasting - Return Channel via Satellite (DVB-RCS). The signal is received and transmitted using a satellite dish fitted with an outdoor transceiver system.

The real challenge was time. Just short of 500 customers to be migrated in under 10 weeks, with premises spread all across Northern Ireland. The rollout of services started in March 2009 and were completed ahead of schedule and in budget by the end of April 2009 using Remote Technical Services' own highly skilled team of Engineers. Remote Technical Servicescontinue to support the system on behalf of Avanti throughout the life of the contract.

Remote Technical Services’s expertise in providing satellite and wireless services to homes, small business, rural communities and offshore installations across the UK and the North Sea made them an ideal partner to Avanti for this project.