Xantic and Faslink To Provide Online Banking to The Philippines

Xantic has announced the signing of an agreement with Faslink Communications. Xantic will contribute satellite airtime and business support to Faslink, which is providing a new generation of communication facilities to banks and financial institutions across the Philippine archipelago. Faslink Communications provides complete end-to-end turn-key solutions to the banking industry. Working in partnership with Xantic, Faslink is now able to offer financial institutions in The Philippines a solution based on Global Area Network (GAN) terminals, with Mobile Packet Data Service (MPDS) capabilities. This will provide the missing link to banks located in rural areas, where the current communications infrastructure is neither economical nor reliable. The communication infrastructure challenge faced by the Philippine archipelago offers a textbook example of the benefits of satcom solutions. It comprises over 7,100 islands, with vast mountainous terrains separated by bodies of water. Currently, all financial transactions in rural areas are still covered by cheques, with all the delays in both payment and actual financial status data this implies. The new Xantic/Faslink service will offer on-line data and transfers to over 2800 banks spread across the provinces of The Philippines. In excess of six million workers located in rural areas will then receive their wages on time, just one of the practical improvements in service that these banks will now be able to offer their customers. Faslink is now preparing comprehensive EFT/POS and ATM switching facilities using GAN terminals with MPDS. This will offer a secure, quick, cost effective and reliable way of linking the local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) in The Philippines. The turn-key project will be rolled out over a period of three years. Xantic conducted an extensive testing program, helping ensure that the banks will be able to conduct business without any interruption. “One of the primary reasons for choosing to work with Xantic is the local support it offers us,” commented Ronald Fesalbon, Chief Operating Officer of Faslink Communications. ”Xantic’s staff has been involved in testing the equipment for the first banks involved in the project and will continue in providing on-site assistance with the deployment of the network. As the only Inmarsat Service Provider with viable local presence in the Philippines, Xantic’s role will be crucial to delivering quality service with immediate response to customers’ problems.” “This project demonstrates the success of our ‘think global, act local philosophy’,” said James de Vroome – Vice President Asia Pacific of Xantic. “It also shows our commitment to act as a genuine business partner to Inmarsat Service Providers. By working together in this way, the quality of the service provided to end users is extremely enhanced. And Xantic’s ability to offer added value options such as MPDS gives a genuine technological foundation to such cooperations.” The addition of MPDS capabilities is especially important to this project as it offers the required bandwidth for transmitting financial information. MPDS operates on 64kbit/s satellite channels, for both the to-mobile and from-mobile directions. It allows for continuous, always-online connections and because it is being packet switched, users are only charged for the actual data packets sent and received rather than for the time online.