Eutelsat Communications, one of the world’s leading satellite operators, has selected EADS Astrium to deliver its first satellite operating exclusively in Ka-band frequencies. The satellite will form the cornerstone of a major new satellite infrastructure programme that will significantly expand capacity for consumer broadband services across Europe and the
Currently called KA-SAT and scheduled for launch in third quarter 2010, the satellite will be configured with over 80 spotbeams, making it the most advanced multi-spot satellite designed in the world to date. A network of eight gateways managed by Eutelsat, and which will provide access to KA-SAT and deliver the full range of services to end users, will form an integral part of the new infrastructure.
Eutelsat will locate KA-SAT at 13 degrees East where it will join three large HOT BIRD Ku-band broadcasting satellites that form the world’s leading video neighbourhood. This colocation will enrich the range of consumer entertainment services offered from the Group’s prime neighbourhood by enabling satellite homes to receive television in the Ku-band and new rich media services in the Ka-band through a single dual-frequency antenna.
KA-SAT marks a material step forward in multi-spot satellites which are already demonstrating their efficiency for consumer Internet access, HDTV and local television broadcasting in hard-to-serve areas in
The amount of bandwidth provided by KA-SAT, coupled with ViaSat’s next generation SurfBeam ground networking system, will take satellite operations to new levels of efficiency and capacity, delivering a total throughput of over 70 Gigabits per second. A watershed in satellite-based IP access, the new satellite and associated gateways will dramatically increase the number of addressable households to well beyond one million, with end-user speeds comparable to ADSL. This compares to several tens of thousands of professional users served today by existing Ku-band satellites serving
Based on the EUROSTAR E3000 platform, KA-SAT is the 17th satellite commissioned by Eutelsat from EADS Astrium.
