[Satellite News 07-05-11] Italian Space Agency (ASI) signed an agreement with Ka-Sat operator Eutelsat Communications and its SkyLogic affiliate on July 4 to use the new high-throughput satellite to develop a broadband connectivity solution for Italy’s public administrations that will spread 550 Mbps of Ka-band capacity across 10 spotbeams for full coverage of Italian territory.

   Launched in May, Eutelsat’s high capacity, all Ka-band system provides a configuration that enables frequencies to be reused 20 times and takes total throughput to beyond 70 Gbps. The deal has generated considerable attention in Italy due to the fact that the capacity will mainly be deployed to deliver broadband to public administrations located in previously underserved regions, but also to provide available service in higher density areas.

   Idate Satellite Analyst Maxime Baudry told Satellite News that Eutelsat could use the ASI deal to prove its monetization strength in Italy, as its rival SES accelerates its development efforts in neighboring countries. “In Germany for instance, 80 percent of the rural population had access to less than 2 Mbps in 2010 according to our findings. In Poland, it was 90 percent of the population that had less than 2 Mbps, so we think in all cases satellite broadband is expected to develop at a fast pace in Europe. Idate forecasts around 700,000 subscribers by 2015 in this zone,” she said.

   Eutelsat’s Tooway service delivered through Ka-Sat will offer broadband speeds of up to 10 Mbps downstream and 4 Mbps upstream to Italian users. In addition, ASI said it would cooperate with Skylogic to access Ka-Sat and to define integration schemes between Tooway and the capacity that ASI foresees to have on its own satellites in the future.

   The proposed public/private partnership that would be set up through the ASI deal also has sparked interest in the Italian media. ASI President Enrico Saggese said the structure of the deal is beneficial to all parties involved.

   “ASI is looking carefully after the overall Italian satellite telecommunications strategy, with the objective of deploying state-of-the-art infrastructure to cover the needs of institutional customers,” Saggese said. “We think that exploiting the public-private partnership in this field will be very beneficial, for both the efficiency and the effectiveness of the relevant programs. This agreement with Eutelsat and Skylogic is fully consistent with our objectives and opens wide cooperation perspectives, for the benefit of the Italian institutions and citizens.”

   “This agreement with ASI is a new example of how our powerful and flexible KA-SAT infrastructure can be used to efficiently and quickly equalize access to the benefits of broadband. Italy’s National Space Agency is committed to exploiting the strengths of satellite telecommunications for increasing knowledge and developing a culture of high technology in Italy,” Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen added in a statement.

   Eutelsat’s Director of Multimedia and Value-Added Services Arduino Patacchini previously told Satellite News at the end of March that Ka-Sat’s entry into service would change the operator’s business model and that a slew of take-up contracts could make a second Ka-band satellite launch a reality.

   “We don’t know what will happen with the take-up of capacity on Ka-Sat. We are assuming the consumption of bandwidth will increase,” Patacchini said. “If the capacity fills very quickly, the option to create the second Ka-Sat is there. The speed is comparable for ASDL2, but we would look to a second satellite. We have the orbital position. One of the advantages is Ka-Sat is that it covers all of Europe. We need to make sure the business works, before we make another investment.”