A satellite dedicated to delivering broadband internet to Europe has been launched successfully from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday. The six-tonne Ka-Sat is the second satellite of its kind to be launched in Europe.
The Eutelsat operated satellite will provide services to millions of homes across Europe in so-called "not-spots", where consumers are not able to receive stable internet connections. Ka-Sat will provide the continent with 80 spot beams which produce signals that cover an area of a few hundred kilometres across. Spot beams allow for frequencies to be reused effective in multiple regions without interference.
Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat CEO said "As many as 30 million households in Europe are not served at all or get high mediocrity of service. These could be people in the countryside or in the mountains, sometimes not very far from large cities. Ka-Sat is an answer to that problem".Paris-based Eutelsat is one of three Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) companies currently operating worldwide. They also transmit thousands of TV channels across its spacecraft fleet.
This latest satellite follows the Hylas-1, operated by Avanti Communications of London, which provides eight regional spot beams to the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Eastern Europe. Ka-Sat is considerably larger than its competitor, with a notional capacity that can serve up to two million households compared with Hylas's 300,000.
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