seek4sat - Satellite Internet & Broadcast

New generation two-way satellite service brings high-quality, affordable Internet access to residential usersNew consumer broadband satellite service will be available from the end of September in Germany, with selected other European markets to follow before the end of the year.

The new-generation high-quality and affordable Tooway (2Way Satellite) service is designed for residential users, with equipment a fraction the cost of existing enterprise-focused satellite services. As a new broadband alternative for homes with low-speed dial-up, Internet via Satellite can at last change the rice/performance paradigm for consumer satellite Internet access in rural areas across Europe.

The Tooway  Satellite system will be provided via Ka-band capacity on Eutelsat’s HOT BIRD™ 6 satellite at 13 degrees East and will also be available via Ku-band capacity on the EUROBIRD™ 3 satellite.

The Ka and Ku-band hubs with equipment supplied by ViaSat to manage Tooway Satellite are now fully commissioned and ready for service. Three different service grades will be provided in Ka-band and Ku-band with the initial offer delivering maximum downlink speeds of up to 2048 kbps and maximum uplink speeds of up to 384 kbps. Consumer tariffs and hardware prices will be defined by local service providers partnering in the distribution of this service.

An extension to a triple play service with IPTV and VoIP will be able to be proposed by distributors. The new service is based on ViaSat’s well-established SurfBeam® DOCSIS® two-way broadband satellite system that is already used by more than 250,000 homes in North America. The system is a highly scaleable open standards-based platform that dramatically lowers the cost of consumer terminals and services via the widely used open standard cable modem networking technology, DOCSIS 1.1. To adapt the standard to satellite, ViaSat has developed a satellite air interface that is seamlessly integrated into DOCSIS headend termination systems. It leverages low cost DOCSIS customer premises chips and software already used by more than 20 million cable customers around the world.

The compact consumer satellite terminal comprises an Outdoor Unit (ODU) and an Indoor Un it (IDU) or modem that interfaces to a PC or home network via a standard Ethernet connection (10/100 Mbps). The ODU consists of a 67cm Ka-band dish or a 96cm Ku-band dish. The Ku-band ODU includes a Low Noise Block (LNB) converter with linear polarisation able to receive at speeds up to 4 Mbps. It is also equipped with a powerful 2 Watt amplifier for transmission to the satellite by the consumer at speeds exceeding 1 Mbps. In Ka-band, both the LNB and amplifier are integrated in a high-tech transceiver.

The Tooway (2way Satellite) service can be combined with Ku-band DTH reception from Eutelsat’s HOT BIRD™ video neighbourhood at 13º East.

“Our SurfBeam DOCSIS system has shown its ability to achieve unprecedented performance with low-cost, consumer-oriented satellite terminals. Using Eutelsat’s well-positioned satellites, the system can bring affordable, high-quality Internet broadband access to residential customers who have no high-speed alternative,” said Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO of ViaSat . “Building on our success with WildBlue and Telesat in North America, we are excited to bring this satellite broadband system to the European market.

“This service service also perfectly complements our suite of turnkey broadband services for professionals, notably D-STAR which already serves enterprises and public agencies across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”

The market potential in Europe is substantial as the digital divide remains a reality in many suburban and rural regions. For more than one million homes in Germany, according to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, satellite is the only solution for broadband Internet access over the coming years. Analysts estimate that in 2010, up to 3.5 percent or 6 million of the 170 million homes in Western Europe will lack terrestrial broadband access. This figure is much higher in Eastern Europe where 8 million or 11.8 percent of 67.6 million homes have no affordable access. In Turkey about 3.5 million of 20.5 million homes are unserved.

See also:

DOCSIS over Satellite || atrexx

Selected Links || atrexx

atrexx has selected a few industry related websites which may be of … Wild Blue uses standardized modem technology based on the DOCSIS cable modem …
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