New horizons for Stanilite

Pacific Telecom

STANILITE Electronics New Zealand Ltd’s participation in the recent Tele communications Forum meeting held at the Tradewinds Hotel, in Suva, has resulted in positive interest in Stanilte’s

Cellular Telephone Systems, reports

managing director Doug Stevens.

Stanilite Electronics is a medium sized electronics company based in Auckland specialising in total turnkey solutions for the a wide range of communications products, ranging from Cellular and Trunked radio products, to VHF and UHF base radio stations and portable Satellite communication systems.

Defence systems design, development and manufacture currently comprise the core of the company’s activities. How ever, telecommunications is a developing component of the SNZ business strategy, which has been promoted by the pur chase by Stanilite Pacific Ltd, of Uni- Lab Telecommunications and TR ser vices, two Australian Telecommunica tion companies. All representation of these products throughout the Pacific nations rests with SNz.

Mr Stevens explains further “New Zealand perhaps more than any other nation sited as it is on the rim of the Pacific, has close cultural and economic ties with many of its Pacific neighbours.

The recent trade show in Suva provided an excellent environment for SNZ to promote its equipment and services.

“The main attraction on the SNZ stand at the show was a five channel Cellswitch capable of supporting approximately 100 subscribers. The Cellswitch was switched on and con figured for local use with Fiji Telecom supplying 4 PSTN lines which when connected to the switch .allowed visitors to use one of the cellular mobile phones available to call home or other visitors to the show who had also been lent mobile phones by SNZ.

“Historically, the economic reality of supplying telephone services to low density rural communities has prevented such developments, and with service

providers being pressured to ensure such

coverage is financially sound, the capital costs of providing such coverage have not been readily available. The Cellswitch from SNZ offers the ideal solution, with a low capital cost structure compared to other cellular systems, and with its modular design, with its remote capa bility each Cellswitch can provide a comprehensive billing and traffic statistic management system. Call charge records are created for each valid call and saved in a local disk file. The records are transferred to a central billing system at the command of a Network manager, who also controls the retrieval of traffic statistics for central analysis.

“Stanilite Electronics may be considered by some sectors of the industry as something of a newcomer. However, the company has cellular radio systems installed in India, Poland, and Iran, with other systems pending for China and Vietnam.

“In the Pacific, Telecom Vanuatu is shortly to take delivery of a cellular system for evaluation and use during the forthcoming Mini South Pacific Games to be staged in Port Vila early this month.”

SATELLITES “Stanilite Electronics, in addition to its range of terrestial communications systems, has available a number of portable satellite communications products. These are ideally suited for use in the more isolated communities of the Pacific particularly during the cyclone season, as well as automatic distribution of weather messages or for communication during medical emergencies.

“The terminals operate through the Geostationary Inmarsat Pacific Ocean Satellite. The Standard ‘M’ terminal is available in a briefcase size unit, and is capable of handling digital voice, data, and fax messages, whilst the Standard ‘C’ terminals can handle Telex, slow speed data (600 bps) or X. 25 messages. Both units are simple to operate and are capable of running for prolonged periods on battery power.”

THE CHALLENGE “Over the next decade most of the Pacific nations

face major challenges. The most basic of these is closing the access gap. To bring rural services up to the level of the urban centres will require massive increases in the total number of lines. If, for example, the Forum countries are to reach the naif way point in closing the gap with industrialised countries, they will need a seven-fold increase in line availability.

Unfortunately, there is no across-the board answer to these difficulties; the majority of Forum telecommunication operators having already overcome the initial challenges posed by de colonisation in the early 1980 s, by

increasing performance expectations

they have achieved a level of operational and technical skills which is reflected in the sophistication of the systems now in use with some of the Pacific island operators.

“The Forum telecommunications op erators vary greatly in size and focus.

This is reflected in the scale and requirements of domestic networks, for instance most operators still have only a first generation of national managers.

There has therefore, been a heavy reliance on joint venture management for the transfer of technical skills, and

organisational capability.

“Finally, this article has been but a brief attempt to give the reader a view of the products available from Stanilite

Electronics, along the impressions gained

in attending the Forum Pacific’s Tele communications conference.” □

Stanilite product: managing director Doug Stevens (left) tries out one of their cellular phones