Satellite begins beaming Internet access to rural Europe
A new Eutelsat service is aimed at serving customers in rural and remote
parts of Europe. Neelie Kroes, the EU commissioner for the digital
agenda, says satellite access is crucial for underserved areas.
On Tuesday, a European satellite began providing Internet access
to people in underserved and remote parts of Europe. The Eutelsat
satellite, known as Ka-Sat, was launched from Kazakhstan in late
December 2010.
In a statement, Eutelsat said that "more than one million homes in
Europe and large parts of the Mediterranean Basin," will be served by
its new Internet service.
"The entry into service of Ka-Sat, the world's most powerful spotbeam
satellite, turns a new page in affordable and immediately available IP
solutions, and places Europe at the forefront of high-capacity satellite
technologies that can serve to quickly close the broadband gap," said
Michel de Rosen, the company's CEO, in a statement. "We look forward to
working with our service and technology partners to unleash the huge
potential of this new pan-European wireless infrastructure."
Eutelsat's Ka-Sat, whose service is sold under the brand name Tooway,
will provide speeds comparable to other terrestrial broadband
providers, at 10 megabits per second for downloads and four megabits per
second for uploads.
Competitive with traditional broadband service
 Neelie Kroes said Tuesday that satellite access could help Europeans in remote areasThe
Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the basic service for
consumers would cost 30 euros ($43) per month, but that households would
also need to purchase a modem and satellite dish for 250 euros ($360).
On its website, Tooway added that the service would cost "virtually
the same monthly fee as ADSL," adding that "Prices and sales conditions
are available from service providers in each country."
EU official lauds satellite access
Also on Tuesday, the EU's commissioner for the digital agenda, Neelie
Kroes, gave a speech in which she re-iterated the goal for all of the
EU to have broadband access by 2013 - and that the EU is already most of
the way there.
"95 percent of Europeans now have access to broadband internet
infrastructure," she said. "That's a great achievement. But it still
leaves a lot of people - 10 million households, in fact - who we are
still to reach."
She added that these remaining 10 million households were in rural
and isolated locations, and suggested that wireless and satellite
connections are likely the best way to make sure that these residences
get online.
"They can be the most cost-effective in such areas where more common landline solutions are not an option," she said.
Author: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Nicole Goebel
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15119205,00.html
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