ATM Downtime
Many automatic teller machines across South Africa will be offline for five hours next month due to maintenance by Telkom. Telkom is updating its VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) hub, a broadband Internet access service that uses an earthbound station for satellite communications of data, voice and video signals.
Work on the hub will start at 1am on August 10 and end at 6am that morning.
There are more than 20000 ATMs around the country, according to Kalyani Pillay, chief executive officer of the SA Banking Risk Information Centre, — but indications are that only a small percentage of them will be affected.
The technology is used to power ATMs in remote areas.
The Telkom broadband satellite solution consists of the satellite earth station at Hartebeesthoek, the terrestrial backhaul lines to the banks’ host sites and numerous VSAT points of presence at ATMs scattered across the country.
Absa has a dedicated VSAT hub and will not be affected by the maintenance, said the bank’s head of media relations Patrick Wadula.
In 2005, Standard Bank signed an agreement with Telkom for the supply of 400 IP-based broadband satellite terminals to power automated teller machines in remote areas. Bank spokesman Ross Linstrom said Standard would not be affected as their ATMs would be switched to another hub while the maintenance was under way.
First National Bank said 27 of their ATMs countrywide would be affected. “Most of our ATMs are on mobile networks,” said spokesman Steve Higgins. George Chirwa, Nedbank’s general manager of ATM services, said the bank was checking what the impact would be.
Nabintu Petsana, Telkom’s acting group executive for corporate communication, said: “Multiple customers that utilise VSAT links will be affected by a period of downtime during the software upgrade which is needed to enhance bandwidth utilisation through the hub.
“VSAT links are most prominent in remote and rural areas. Telkom’s technical personnel will be carrying out the upgrade in conjunction with the equipment vendor’s technicians and they will also be in constant liaison with the banks’ technical experts,” Petsana said.
ATM downtime – give your views
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