Satellite operator SES has signed an agreement with Switzerland’s national telco Swisscom to deploy its internet via satellite service Astra Connect in Switzerland.
Swisscom provides nationwide broadband access as part of the universal broadband service obligation in Switzerland. Around 2% of households lack DSL broadband internet access with the required minimum data rate.
To provide internet access in these homes, Swisscom has decided to opt for a bidirectional satellite solution. From September 2014, it will deploy the Astra Connect service and upgrade the existing access lines.
Astra Connect uses Ka-band capacity on SES’s satellite Astra 2E which entered into commercial service at 28.2° East on February 1, 2014. The broadband internet via satellite solution has been in operation since 2007 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In 2008, Swisscom signed comparable agreement with Eutelsat to deploy the satellite operator’s broadband internet via satellite service Tooway to remote locations.
Astra Connect will replace the Tooway solution previously used by Swisscom, an SES spokesman told Broadband TV News.
