Alcatel-Lucent
and NITA, the information and communications technology (ICT) policy
arm of Ghana's ministry of communications - are to dramatically expand
communication links between central and regional administration offices
to develop IT services and improve transparency and efficiency in
government functions.
Alcatel-Lucent will design and implement a 600 km fiber-optic
'backbone' network that will provide high-speed data links between
central government functions and remote and rural locations. In
addition, Alcatel-Lucent will provide a national data center facility to
support the network, through close collaboration with HP, a global
alliance partner for the delivery of converged ICT solutions.
Under the agreement with NITA (National Information Technology
Agency), Alcatel-Lucent will also manage network operations of Ghana's
entire 'e-government' program for three years commencing November 2012.
Financing for the program is being facilitated by the Danish
International Development Agency (DANIDA), an office of the Danish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs tasked with combating poverty through the
promotion of human rights and economic growth.
The new network, which will link Ghana's north and south as well as
international submarine gateways via its eastern corridor, will use
Alcatel-Lucent's 100 gigabit per second (100G)-capable optical coherent
technology. This advanced fiber-optic technology will enhance business
efficiencies between central and regional government offices and
maintain quality and reliability across a telephone service, email and
other Internet-based e-services.
The network will easily be able to expand to support anticipated
increases in future demand: the government intends to extend use of
e-services to the health, education, justice, immigration, parliament
and other sectors over the next few years.
William Tevie, Director general of NITA said “By delivering a new
network and data center, Alcatel-Lucent will enable us to streamline
government processes between central and rural divisions and provide a
consistent external view. This is an important step toward realizing the
vision of giving our people access to a range of critical services how
and when they need them.”
The Danish minister for development, Christian Friis Bach said
“Information and communication technology (ICT) is an importantplatform
for sustainable growth and development. It can provide access to
information on basic health, education and relevant business data. ICT
can also strengthen democracy and increase transparency, accountability
and empowerment. I am very pleased that Denmark and Danish technical
solutions in this way can contribute to Ghana's further economic
development.”
Daniel Jaeger, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent in Africa said
“Alcatel-Lucent has a long history of providing communications solutions
to meet customers' e-business needs across the globe. Combined with our
managed services expertise we are able to implement the best
organization and processes to help continuously improve the services
available to Ghana's citizens.”
Hakan Yuce, worldwide VP of Global Strategic Alliances at
Alcatel-Lucent added “The NITA project demonstrates the clear value to
our customers of a seamless solution for converged IT and
telecommunications networking needs. Through our global alliance,
Alcatel-Lucent and HP are able to deliver to our customers the broadest
ICT portfolio available.”
The network being installed in Ghana will apply the 1830 Photonic
Service Switch (PSS). The 1830 PSS offers exceptional capacity,
performance, agility and intelligence for the transport of very large
amounts of data over long distances and can support a mixture of 10G,
40G and 100G channels on the same fiber pair, helping ensure support for
future needs as demand grows.
Alcatel-Lucent will work with local IT hardware and services
provider, IPMC, to establish a large-scale data center using
state-of-the-art data center, server and storage infrastructure from HP,
which will host all of the e-Government project information. It will
also host a Genesys helpdesk solution, a performance rating platform and
e-learning systems from Saba.
Source:
http://www.voicendata.com/voice-data/news/168855/alcatel-lucent-extends-ghanas-government-services