PARIS and ROME, July 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --
ASI, the Italian Space Agency today announced an agreement with
Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) to use the new KA-SAT
High Throughput Satellite in order to develop broadband
connectivity for public administrations in Italy. The agreement was
signed by Enrico Saggese, President of ASI, and Arduino Patacchini,
CEO of Skylogic, the Eutelsat affiliate that provides broadband
services through KA-SAT.
Eutelsat's high-capacity KA-SAT infrastructure is a powerful new
platform for extending broadband access to users beyond range of
terrestrial networks. ASI is planning the progressive use of 550
Mbps of KA-SAT capacity across 10 spotbeams that together provide
full coverage of Italian territory. The capacity will mainly be
deployed to deliver broadband to Italian public administrations
beyond range of terrestrial networks so that the benefits of ICT
can be extended to citizens located in previously underserved
regions.
A Public Private Partnership will be set up by ASI with the
private sector to deploy broadband services for Italian
institutional and government entities. These will include the
Tooway™ service, which is delivered through KA-SAT, and offers
users broadband speeds of up to 10 Mbps downstream and 4 Mbps
upstream. In addition, ASI will cooperate with Skylogic to access
KA-SAT and to define integration schemes between Tooway™ and the
capacity that ASI foresees to have on its own satellites in the
future.
Enrico Saggese, President of ASI, said: "ASI is looking
carefully after the overall Italian satellite telecommunications
strategy, with the objective of deploying state-of-the-art
infrastructure to cover the needs of institutional customers. We
think that exploiting the public-private partnership in this field
will be very beneficial, for both the efficiency and the
effectiveness of the relevant programmes. This agreement with
Eutelsat and Skylogic is fully consistent with our objectives and
opens wide cooperation perspectives, for the benefit of the Italian
institutions and citizens."
Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat CEO, added: "This agreement with
ASI is a new example of how our powerful and flexible KA-SAT
infrastructure can be used to efficiently and quickly equalise
access to the benefits of broadband. We are delighted to build this
new relationship with Italy's National Space Agency, which is
committed to exploiting the strengths of satellite
telecommunications for increasing knowledge and developing a
culture of high technology in Italy."
In service since May 2011, Eutelsat's high-capacity all Ka-band
system, combining satellite and on-ground infrastructure, opens a
new chapter in the market for satellite-based IP services. Its
revolutionary concept is based on a payload with 82 narrow
spotbeams connected to 10 ground stations. This configuration
enables frequencies to be reused 20 times and takes total
throughput to beyond 70 Gbps. The ground network uses ViaSat's
SurfBeam® 2 technology, an advanced version of the technology
already powering broadband connectivity for 500,000 satellite homes
in North America. The combination of KA-SAT's exceptional capacity
and SurfBeam® 2 enables Internet connectivity to be delivered at
speeds comparable to ADSL for more than one million homes in Europe
and large parts of the Mediterranean Basin.
About ASI
The Italian Space Agency was founded in 1988. Its purpose was to
coordinate all of Italy's efforts and investments in the space
sector that had begun in the 1960s. In 20 years, ASI became one of
the most significant players in the world in space science,
satellite technologies and the development of mobile systems for
exploring the Universe. Today, ASI has a key role at the European
level where Italy is the third contributor country to the European
Space Agency. It also is involved at the international level. For
example, ASI has a close working relationship with NASA, which has
led to its participation in many of the most interesting scientific
missions of recent years. One of the most fascinating projects has
been the construction and activities of the International Space
Station where Italian astronauts are by now at home. Thanks to
ASI's efforts, the Italian scientific community has had
unprecedented successes in recent years in astrophysics and
cosmology, contributing among other things to reconstructing the
first moments of life in the universe or making essential steps
towards understanding the gamma ray bursts phenomenon. Furthermore,
ASI has contributed significantly to space exploration by building
scientific instruments that are aboard NASA and ESA probes bound
for discovering the secrets of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In all of
the major missions planned for future years-from Venus to the
comets, up to the outer limits of our solar system-there will be a
piece of Italy.
http://www.asi.it
About Eutelsat Communications
Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code:
FR0010221234) is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A. With capacity
commercialised on 27 satellites that provide coverage over the
entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa,
India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, Eutelsat
is one of the world's three leading satellite operators in terms of
revenues. At March 31, 2011, Eutelsat's satellites were
broadcasting more than 3,800 television channels to over 200
million cable and satellite homes in Europe, the Middle East and
Africa. The Group's satellites also serve a wide range of fixed and
mobile telecommunications services, TV contribution markets,
corporate networks, and broadband markets for Internet Service
Providers and for transport, maritime and in-flight markets.
Eutelsat's broadband subsidiary, Skylogic, markets and operates
access to high speed Internet services through teleports in France
and Italy that serve enterprises, local communities, government
agencies and aid organisations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the
Americas. Headquartered in Paris, Eutelsat and its subsidiaries
employ 700 commercial, technical and operational employees from 28
countries.
http://www.eutelsat.com
http://www.tooway.com
SOURCE Eutelsat Communications
