Aramiska’s assault on the continental European broadband satellite markets is set to begin in earnest. The operator, which is already selling satellite broadband services in the UK, is getting ready to launch in Spain, and later in Italy, France and Germany. Philippe Bodart, Aramiska’s CEO, told Interspace: “We have people on the ground in Spain as we speak. We are building up a good set of resellers in that market as well as a direct sales force. We think we can get 300 to 700 customers from continental Europe by the end of the year.”

The launch of broadband satellite services in continental Europe marks a key step for Aramiska. Bodart told Interspace he expects his company will be in a position to sign up its first customer by the middle of this year in Spain. He said of the demand for services, “We have been in the UK for a while. We launched the service in December. I think we have pretty good visibility in terms of demand in the UK. It is early days in continental Europe. I would think in certain parts of Spain where we have done the marketing and research, we [will] see demand as high as it is in the UK.”

Aramiska has already signed over 100 customers in the UK and hopes by the end of the year to have between 2,500 and 3,000 customers. In continental Europe, the company expects to have a minimum of 300 initial customers and it is shooting for around 700 customers by year-end. If Aramiska hits its targets, it is hoping to generate over 2 million euros ($17 million) in annual revenues from offering broadband services.

–Mark Holmes