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Posted at Jun 29/2005 12:42PM:

Project Executive Summary

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A key aspect of the AVU ‘s mission is to increase access to quality higher education opportunities across Africa . The traditional residential University model currently adopted by most universities in Africa is unable to meet either current or projected demand . Therefore , there is a need to extend access outside the universities physical campus by developing high quality Open and Distance Learning capacity within AVU Partner Institutions, including those that make use of new technologies for e-learning where appropriate . A pilot project was conceived with the purpose of using wireless technology for implementing , on regional basis , a VSAT-WiFi network among Burundi , Kenya , Mali, Senegal .

Investment

The system has three main components .The first one is the "Master Earth Station" located at GSI teleport: is the network control center for the entire VSAT network.The second component is the teh VSAT remote Earth station .The third component is the satellite itself : all signals sent betweenteh VSAT remote Earth Stations are beamed through the statelllite . Investment for regional network are given in detail: summary is as follow . Burundi : 36670Euros ( out of which 2500 euros still to be financed ) Kenya : 36670Euros ( out of which 2500 euros still to be financed ) Mali : 56850 Euro ( out of which 21000 euros still to be financed ) Senegal (St Louis):36670Euros ( out of which 2500 euros still to be financed ) Senegal (Dakar) : 36670Euros ( out of which 2500 euros still to be financed ) ---

General financial figure: 97% of the project is already financed were 3% still to be financed )

BENEFITS

Teachers , Staff and Students in one country are linked with corresponding people in other countries ;in this way they can exchange experience and know-how , acn co-operate to common projects or researches , can harmonize working procedures , can access texts and information . Staff and Faculty will save a lot of money in terms of intermidiate consumption fees ( telephone , fax , mail) Students will save time as long as the access to library and , in general , to documents is improved ....

Contacs

Chimon Alberic e-mail: achimon@vu.org website : http://www.avu.org Tel : (+254)202712056 PoBOX 25405-00603 71 ,Maalim Juma Road ,Kilimani Nairobi -Kenya