Re: .africa gTLD

["Tierno S. Bah" <tsbah@afriq.net>]

Michael Dillon wrote:
> 
> 
> He said "right there" not RIGHT. The term "right there" means "in that
> place".
> 
> It is essential that lots of work happens right there in Africa but the
> people who shuttle back and forth often hit the jackpot when they obtain
> investors for infrastructure projects. Imagine what the effect of a
> transatlantic fibre bundle from the USA to West Africa, for instance.
> 

I don't know about "hitting the jackpot", but I do know about toiling
hard 
to get through the maze and the pitfalls of raising capital for
high-tech
business in Africa. Scarce domestic savings compounded by the flight or 
only a trickling of foreign capital compel African entrepreneurs to look 
abroad. There they face even tougher challenges than their peers from 
elsewhere. Anyway, here is what we have been doing right there in
Guinea, 
and soon elsewhere in Africa. 
The information below reflects our philosophy of private ownership of
the
pipe or communications backbone and its applications and services. 

Profile: AfriQ*Access, Inc. and Guinea*Access

Founded in 1991, AfriQ*Access, Inc. is a Washington, DC.-based digital 
communications and information company and a mid-level Internet 
service provider. It focuses on Africa, but also targets clients 
and users worldwide. Our company has a Class B TCP/IP address 
(165.231.0.0) and holds the rights to the afriq.net domain name.

AfriQ*Access, Inc. has reached a partnership agreement that will 
allow it to start  building a domestic and international satellite 
network in Guinea. The network will provide very small aperture 
terminals (VSAT), international business services (IBS), and 
international data relay (IDR) communications services in and/or 
out of Guinea. Remote earth stations will connected to the Silver 
Spring (MD) Teleport hub, operational since November 1996.  

The AfriQNet Network

The AfriQNet network is a new service jointly owned by AfriQ*Access,
Inc. 
and its partners. It was designed to become a leading service in the 
African telecommunications marketplace, available to government, 
business, industry and educational customers and end users. Based 
on costs and technical considerations the AfriQNet(tm) traffic will 
land in the United States for to and through inbound/outbound traffic.

The AfriQNet(tm) joint venture will build, own and operate a
corresponding 
facilities in Africa to carry country-wide telecommunications traffic, 
as well as intra-African traffic.

In the initial phase AfriQNet(tm) will have earth stations in Guinea, 
to sell capacity to the PSTN, to cellular service operators and to
other customers and users. AfriQNet(tm) will gradually expand into 
a domestic and international telecommunications and backbone.  

With the prototype version in its final phase, AfriQ*Access will soon 
launch webAFRIQA(tm) at http://www.afriq.net. webAFRIQA(tm) is a 
cluster of Web sites covering Africa's fifty-four countries, and 
publishing information topics on the Continent and the Diaspora. 
webAFRIQA(tm) is seamlessly linked to AfriQBase(tm), a relational 
database back-end. webAFRIQA(tm) will also offer:
- Electronic commerce and EDI services
- Multicasting
- Telephony, television and audio channels
- Training and consulting services.

Founded in 1992, Guinea*Access is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 
AfriQ*Access. Guinea*Access hold two licenses from the Government 
of the Republic of Guinea:

- A C-band license to provide, as a bypass network, domestic and 
international telecommunications services and products, including 
data, news, rural telephony, full Internet connectivity, Satellite 
News Gathering and Broadcasting, sports and entertainment pay-TV, 
Distance Learning (health, education, training), etc. Guinea*Access 
has the rights to negotiate and lease/purchase space segment capacity 
directly from INTELSAT, without further approval by the Guinean
Signatory. 
- A wireless network license to build, own and operate a country-wide 
terrestrial carrier network, optionally interconnectable with Societe 
des Telecommunications de Guinee (Sotelgui), the PSTN. Guinea*Access 
has been assigned the 915 MHz wireless spread spectrum frequency band. 

- Tierno S. Bah
AfriQ*Access, Inc.
Guinea*Access