Wednesday, June 29 2005 15:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A demonstration of the proposed Pan African Network (PAN) connecting 53 African nations through satellite and fibre optic links was made to envoys of 26 countries from that region at Rashtrapati Bhawan today (Jun 29, 2005).

PAN was proposed by President A P J Abdul Kalam as part of India's 'Focus Africa' programme at the Pan African Parliament in September last year (2004) during his state visit to South Africa.

Under the delivery system, the network will primarily provide tele-education, tele-medicine, Internet, video conferencing and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services while also supporting e-governance, e-commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological service connectivity.

In addition, connectivity at the level of Heads of State could be provided through Internet, Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and video conferencing.

India has provided a budget of $ 50 million (nearly Rs 215 crore) for installation, initial operations and maintenance for the first three years.

The project will work through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network connecting the hub to 53 learning centres with five universities and ten super specialty hospitals.