Each DialAway remote site supports up to six toll-quality voice channels on the network, providing as many as 4-5,000 voice lines. The DialAway VSAT provides on-demand voice, fax, and data services to and from fixed remote locations via satellite.

It can be deployed quickly in harsh terrain and is designed to perform well in severe conditions where the mountainous terrain and cold weather make it difficult to implement a communications infrastructure.

These are important attributes in Tibet, a vast, mountainous territory with altitudes up to 5,000 meters. In such an environment, satellite-based technology provides the most effective, if not the only, means of communication.

Gilat's DialAway rural telephony VSATs are used successfully by other major telecommunications agencies around the world, including Telkom South Africa, Peru's FITEL, Colombia's Compartel and India's TATA Teleservices.

However, it was the successful deployment of DialAway VSATs in China's Xinjiang region (China's first large-scale, satellite rural telephony network), that was instrumental in the decision to award Gilat the contract in Tibet.

The first 300 VSATs have been delivered to China Telecom, while the remaining units are to be delivered in the second quarter of 2003. China Telecom is responsible for the deployment of the system. Gilat provides technical services, training and support to its customers in China through its local Beijing office.

Giora Reish, Associate Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Asia, said, "With this agreement, we solidify Gilat's position as the leading provider of satellite-based rural telephony networks in China. Given the fact that several other Western regions of China are interested in similar systems, we have a very positive outlook for our business position in this very important market."

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