Using satellite technology, Tooway™ can now offer the U.K.’s rural homes, and those in slowband areas, access to 2 megabit per second (2Mbps) broadband services without the need for an existing telephone line. Tooway™ can deliver broadband for all and the service is also triple play-ready, allowing distributors to offer additional TV and IP telephony services using the same equipment. Tooway™ will be delivered in the U.K. via a network of certified local distributors, including Bentley Walker Satellite Internet Solutions, Avonline Ltd in Bristol, Satellite Solutions Worldwide Ltd in Oxfordshire and Remote Data Services Ltd in Perthshire, Scotland. The Tooway™ solution consists of a small satellite dish and a modem connected to the PC via Ethernet, giving customers Internet access following a simple installation.
According to broadband think tank Point Topic, large sections of the U.K. remain without the minimum 2Mbps broadband — around 15 per cent of homes in the East Midlands are currently out of range, as are almost 16 per cent of homes in the North East, nearly 20 per cent in the South West, and around 14 per cent in the South East. Tooway™ is the first satellite two-way broadband service offering similar speeds and costs to ADSL. The service is based on Eutelsat’s satellite coverage, the commercial and infrastructure operating experience of Eutelsat’s subsidiary Skylogic, and ViaSat’s SurfBeam technology. The technology used by Tooway™ comes to Europe after extensive experience on the North American market, where ViaSat already provides the equipment and network for more than 400,000 homes with satellite broadband access fully independent from the terrestrial network. Today, Tooway™ is already serving customers in 20 European countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland with other countries across Europe rolling out over the coming months. Tooway™ operates in the Ku-band in the U.K. and is delivered using Eutelsat’s EUROBIRD™ 3 satellite at 33 degrees East. In 2010, Eutelsat will expand the service with additional high speed Internet access up to 10Mbps. These revolutionary broadband speeds will come from the launch of KA-SAT, a dedicated new satellite from Eutelsat, specifically designed for broadband delivery in Europe. The satellite, which has the combined capacity of forty traditional satellites, will enable Eutelsat to deliver Internet access to up to two million European homes at a similar speed, price and quality to that of terrestrial ADSL2 services.
