Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'ViaSat'

Eutelsat, ViaSat unveil European broadband service (UK)

  • September 2nd, 2007
  • 2:30 pm

European satellite services provider Eutelsat partners with global satellite equipment manufacturer ViaSat to launch a consumer broadband satellite service in Europe, starting with Germany at the end of September and selected other European markets to follow before the end of the year. The service is called Tooway and targets residential users in rural areas. Tooway will be provided via Ka-band capacity on Eutelsat’s HOT BIRD 6 satellite at 13 degrees East and will also be available via Ku-band capacity on the EUROBIRD 3 satellite. The Ka and Ku-band hubs with equipment supplied by ViaSat to manage Tooway are now fully commissioned and ready for service at Skylogic’s SkyPark teleport in Turin, Italy. Three different service grades will be provided in Ka-band and Ku-band with the initial offer delivering maximum downlink speeds of up to 2048 Kbps and maximum uplink speeds of up to 384 Kbps. Consumer tariffs and hardware prices will be defined by local service providers partnering in the distribution of the Tooway service. The first distribution partners and service providers in Germany are Internetagentur Schott and Teles. The new service is based on ViaSat’s SurfBeam DOCSIS® two-way broadband satellite system.

   

TDC and Viasat conduct mobile TV trial (Denmark)

  • June 28th, 2007
  • 8:27 am

Danish incumbent TDC and broadcaster Viasat have announced the test launch of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting, Handheld), allowing subscribers to watch TV on their handsets. So far, TDC users have only been able to watch mobile TV via 3G content stremaing, but for the next three weeks, selected subscribers equipped with appropriate Nokia cell phones will have access to six TV channels via DVB-H, which is expected to become the European standard for mobile TV. As opposed to streaming, DVB-H broadcasts TV signals to cell phones, offering better picture quality to multiple users. TDC and Viasat have installed transmission equipment in Copenhagen to carry out the test. Viviane Reding, European Telecoms Commissioner, has said that DVB-H should be a pan-European standard. On that basis, Viasat and TDC expect that DVB-H will also become the standard in Denmark.