[8-28-07 – Satellite News Today] SES Astra has announced details of a new Internet deal in Germany, as the company satellite operator  looks to make an impact in one of Europe’s biggest broadband markets.
The company SES Astra announced August 28 that it had signed a deal with H3 Netservice, a German provider of Internet and telecoms services, to market its SES Astra’s high-speed Internet access product ASTRA2Connect Astra2Connect to end consumers in Germany. This is the second major deal SES Astra has signed in Germany for its ASTRA2Connect service.

H3 Netservice will market ASTRA2Connect Astra2Connect through retail partners to end consumers, reaching several thousand affiliated outlets in Germany. H3 Netservice intends to offer ASTRA2Connect in three service packages. All the necessary hardware – a satellite dish with an interactive device, as well as a modem – will be made available through H3 or retailers. ASTRA2Connect is a fully satellite-based solution for broadband access that delivers dual- and triple-play services without any terrestrial support.

Earlier this year, SES Astra signed a similar deal with Filiago, another German telecoms provider. This deal was announced in March at the CeBIT show in Hannover. In terms of the potential size of the German market, official data from the German Ministry for Economy and Technology indicates that there are around three 3 million German homes which that still do not have any access to terrestrial broadband services.