Remote areas content delivery service launches soon in Asian schools

(Link to original article) Developing Telecoms / VAUGHAN O’GRADY / 18 JANUARY 2024

Content delivery over multiple devices is in the news once more – this time thanks to a partnership targeting India, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Forsway, whose solutions combine satellite with existing telecom networks, and Cloudpoint, which offers a range of services to manage customers across all touch points for global enterprises, have established Xtend Solutions, a new provider of low-cost content streaming solutions aimed at offering robust internet connectivity to serve vast geographies with unreliable or no service.

Xtend Solutions’ new offering harnesses Forsway’s agile satellite technology and ground equipment and Cloudpoint’s expertise in delivering solutions and executing on a wide scale.

The offering from Xtend Solutions will cater to unserved and underserved locations, using Wi-Fi satellite technology to distribute content, and bypassing the need for a traditional internet connection. Cloudpoint will promote and deploy the new offering with technical support from Forsway.

The primary markets the new venture will focus on are India, Africa and Southeast Asia, within the education, digital outdoor advertising, and OTT services verticals.

As the partners point out, current estimates suggest that over 100,000 schools in India have fragmented or no internet service. The first roll-out of the new service is planned for remote school use cases in Asia in the first quarter of this year.

Xtend Solutions will set up the hardware for transmitting educational content to schools, with Wi-Fi hotspots in each school. Content will be downloadable via a Wi-Fi hotspot; it can be viewed offline on mobile phones.

Apps and other processes can be customised to bespoke requirements to deliver a tailor-made solution.