Multinet in Sierra Leone

Summary
MULTI NET Sierra Leone as a company of MULTI NET Holding Group started its professional activity in middle of the year 2005. MULTI NET Communications Limited has been registered in October 2005, fully licensed for telecommunication services in November 2005 and started its commercial activity in Sierra Leone in May 2006. Initially main target of the company for year 2006 was establishment of presence in the country, staffing key departments (Technical, Sales and Marketing, Administrative), building IP backbone network with points of presents in capital, Freetown, and main provincial centers Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Kono. As at January 2007, company providing wireless ISP service to over 70 clients in Freetown with 4 operational base stations, satellite teleport and Network Operations Center located at strategic points of the capital. Important lease and co-locations contracts have been signed with Sierra Leone Telecommunication Corporation (Sierratel, government owned telecom operator, countrywide presence) and Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS, government owned radio and television broadcasting corporation, countrywide presence) to provide future expansion to provinces with minimal operational expenses.
We have been managing the full cycle of the Project, including business planning, equipment purchase and delivery, installation, maintenance and management of the ISP network, as well as development of the ISP sales & marketing strategies, dealing with clients, suppliers, and partners.

Licenses
The company has been granted (November 2006) by Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications of Sierra Leone telecommunications licenses (valid countrywide) for following services:
- VSAT, ISP, Broadband Wireless Access, Internet, voice, video and data streaming,
- CDMA voice and data services in frequency spectrum from 400Mhz up to 4 Ghz
Combination of these two licenses allowing MULTI NET to build and operate wireless network based on any of recently developed technologies. Frequency spectrum allocation is currently in process of approval by Ministry of Transport and Communications and indicated as follow:
- Frequency spectrum allocation in 800Mhz band, at least 5 MHz bandwidth for CDMA voice and data services;
- Frequency spectrum allocation in 2500-2700 MHz band; at least 50 MHz bandwidth for TD-CDMA or WiMax data services;
- Frequency spectrum allocation in 3400-3600 MHz band; at least 50 MHz bandwidth for TD-CDMA or WiMax data services;

Technical solutions
Satellite VSAT HUB connect network via satellite Express 3A to TIER 1 ISP in Europe.
Network Operation Center (NOC) is equipped by CISCO router/switches and SuperMicro servers to manage and monitor network operations (www.cisco.com, www.supermicro.com).
IP backbone (certified INFINET WIRELESS Equipment), connecting 4 base station Alvarion to NOC with interconnection to Sierratel MW links to provinces. Links are organized in ring configuration to backup each hub operation.
Last Mile solution organized with Alvarion Customer Premises Equipment (www.alvarion.com), which proved to be very reliable and cost effective.
Existent network infrastructure is ready to deploy last mile solution based on received frequency allocation including but not limited to WiMax, CDMA 2000/EvDo, WiBro and others.

Sales and Marketing
Current market analyses show strong interest of public and organizations to practically non-existent services like IPTV, DID based virtual phone number, online gaming and other entertainment services. Strategic location of company's PoP will allow fast development of such services with new technologies/equipment installation, either LOS or NLOS type. Considering this circumstance, it would be quite possible to gain in a short period of time rather big numbers of clients using relatively cheap NLOS WIFI or WIMAX plug&play Clients Premises Equipment.
MULTI NET Sales and Marketing team is well organized and successfully dealing with public and corporate customers. Corporate customers include German Embassy, Guinean Embassy, Gambia Embassy, Iran Embassy, NGO institutions, travel agencies, banks, etc.
Marketing strategy of MULTI NET is to provide service to all segments of the market. "Pay on Go" billing scenario, in conjunction with prepaid and postpaid services to corporate clients will allow to attract different customer categories, from low income public to high end corporate, and increase company's revenue.
Fast telecom industry development, particularly technology innovations, created recently many different last mile solutions, both wire line and wireless. Solid and extensive MULTI NET IP backbone with PoP in different parts of the country, combined with highly qualified technical personnel, will allow implementation of these new technologies and services in no time, creating extra revenue and building company as leading telecom provider in the market.

Human Resources
Combination of international and local staff with day-to-day on-hands technical and sales training allowed MULTI NET create a solid team of telecom professionals, highly motivated in company progress and development. Management team has extensive experience and high level contacts in the telecommunication sector of country and West Africa region. Deep knowledge of local national and religious traditions as well as access to administrative resources in Sierra Leone government allowed MULTI NET to manage first stage of the project in very short time. Current political and economical development in neighboring countries (Liberia, Ivory Costa, Guinea Conakry, Mali, etc), in combination with such management knowledge, provide an opportunity to extend MULTI NET business into multinational holding in West Africa region.