[Satellite TODAY 11-30-09] SES World Skies and Astel have teamed up to provide mobile broadband and phone services on trains in Kazakhstan, SES World Skies announced Nov. 26.
    Astel is using the Middle East beam on SES World Skies’ NSS-6 spacecraft to deliver Internet access, email and VoIP telephony services to National Railway Company passengers traveling the 1,300-kilometer route between Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty and its capital, Astana.
    Astel has contracted more than 100 megahertz of transponder capacity with SES World Skies in a long-term deal to provide VSAT networks and government services in Kazakhstan. The mobile communications, featuring transmission speeds of up to 2048 kilobits per second, are being offered free of charge to passengers along the popular rail line. Other rail routes will be added in the near future, SES said.

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