Eutelsat Targets Rural UK

LONDON -- Eutelsat Communications, (Euronext Paris: ETL) the European leader for satellitecommunications, has launched its revolutionary new Tooway™ consumer Internet accessservice in the UK making Lord Carter’s Digital Britain vision of universal Internet access areality.

Using satellite technology available from just £29.99 per month, Tooway™ can now offer theUK’s rural homes, and those in slowband areas, access to 2 megabit per second (2Mbps)broadband services without the need for any existing telephone line. Tooway™ can deliverbroadband for all, as called for by Lord Carter in the Digital Britain interim report published inJanuary this year. The service is also triple play-ready, allowing distributors to offer additionalTV and IP telephony services using the same equipment.

Tooway™ will be delivered in the UK via a network of certified local distributors, includingBentley Walker Satellite Internet Solutions, Avonline Ltd in Bristol, Satellite SolutionsWorldwide Ltd in Oxfordshire and Remote Data Services Ltd in Perthshire, Scotland. TheTooway™ solution consists of a small satellite dish and a modem connected to the PC viaEthernet, giving customers Internet access following a simple installation.

According to Broadband think tank Point Topic large sections of the UK are still without theminimum 2Mbps broadband speed Lord Carter recommends. Around 15 per cent of homesin the East Midlands are currently out of range, as are almost 16 per cent of homes in theNorth East, nearly 20 per cent in the South West, and around 14 per cent in the South East.

The traditional route of extending cable connections capable of running the service to thesehomes would be expensive and well beyond the 2012 deadline set by Lord Carter.

“Tooway™ will help make Lord Carter’s vision for Digital Britain a reality by revolutionisingthe consumer market for satellite Internet access,” said Arduino Patacchini, Director ofMultimedia and Value Added Services at Eutelsat. “Tooway™ is able to offer true broadbandaccess with total independence from existing infrastructures. It has the technology andcapacity to become the definitive, low-cost solution for geographical areas that are affectedby the digital divide.”

Eutelsat Communications S.A.