Iraqi Payment System set up with Central Bank satellite network.

Byline: [e-mail] (Staff Writer)

Satlynx, a GE company and provider of satellite telecommunications, has teamed up with Arabsat to deliver what it says is a fully redundant satellite network that will provide the foundations of a new extensive communications platform for the Central Bank of Iraq.

The main contractor for this World Bank funded $2.7 million project is Luxembourg-based Iraqi owned firm, Alfa Consult. The network interconnects two Central Bank of Iraq locations in Baghdad with seven other remote banks in Basrah, Mosul, Anbar, Kirkuk, Najaf, Hilla and Karbala. It forms the backbone over which the Iraqi Payment System (IPS) will run, enabling secure and rapid financial transactions to take place across the country to the benefit of the Iraqi economy.

"This is just the latest in a series of investments in the essential communications infrastructure of Iraq," said Saleh M. Salman, Head of Payments Dept. at the Central Bank of Iraq., "the IPS system will cut the time required to process financial transactions in Iraq."

The solution is based on the Satlynx Direct satellite platform, built around iDirect technology, with the main hub based at Satlynx's fully secured Teleport in Leuk, Switzerland. The Satlynx Direct platform with significant cost efficiency through bandwidth optimisation enables two-way communications between the main sites in Baghdad and the remote sites throughout Iraq.

Full redundancy is provided at every level of the network, with two satellite terminals installed by Alfa Consult at each location and satellite coverage provided primarily via Arabsat's BADR-4 @ 26[degrees]East, with a hot stand-by option on a secondary satellite system.

The decision to base the network on satellite rather than terrestrial connections was an easy one given the unreliability of the infrastructure that remains after decades of neglect and the destruction that has taken place during the recent upheaval in Iraq.

Prime contractor Alfa Consult's Salar Zahed, Vice President, Director of Marketing, added, "The lack of infrastructure has also meant that we had to cope with frequent power outages throughout the installation stages, but nonetheless, we were able to get the job done and deploy a secure and working network thanks to the Satlynx solution".

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