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Eutelsat Launches Satellite Internet Service Across Europe

Dominique Marques/Astrium




Eutelsat, which offers satellite services mainly to the broadcast industry, will act as a wholesaler of the internet services. Mr. de Rosen suggested that the basic service would be around €30 a month. In addition users would need to purchase a modem and the 77cm satellite dish. This would cost an additional €250.

Unlike conventional satellites which transmit a single frequency beam across an entire continent, KA-SAT, in orbit about 36,000km above the equator at nine degrees East, broadcasts 82 separate beams each with a footprint of about 250km, so maximizing spectral efficiency. The multi-beam approach, although more expensive to construct, reduces operating costs by a factor of eight said Mr. de Rosen, bringing the price of internet access to within that of other conventional providers. At maximum capacity, the satellite will serve up to 1.5 million households with a total throughput of 70 gigabits per second.

In addition to the 6,150-kilogram satellite, the service has 10 base stations across Europe which act as base stations and provide the connectivity to the internet. The cost of the ground stations, satellite and insurance was some €350 million. By contrast, Mr. de Rosen said a traditional satellite was in the order of €250 million. The additional cost, he said, came from the complexity of KA-SAT and the cost of the 10 gateways.

One of the main problems with satellite has been the high latency times. If a message has to be transmitted to and from space, that adds a considerable delay. Using caching and pre-loading, latency had been cut to around 250m/s, still considerably above fiber or ADSL connectivity. Such high latency would make internet gaming difficult.

Eutelsat was not the first company to launch such a service. As was reported earlier, the HYLAS-1 satellite was launched in November last year. However the HYLAS-1 satellite, operated by Avanti Communications of London, is much smaller—serving just 300,000 users.

Mr. de Rosen said that the company, with consolidated revenues of €1,047.2 million (FY 2009-2010), will launch two more satellites this year, and at least four more in 2012. Some 2/3rds of the company’s revenue comes from broadcasting services, about 21% in broadband and 11% in “government services”.

He said there was no immediate plan for a second KA-SAT.

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