Telekom Austria Group has extended its satellite coverage to offer mobile broadband to remote parts of its home market through its A1 subsidiary.
Customers can buy a small satellite dish and modem to connect to KA-SAT satellite broadband from Eutelsat without the need for a fixed line. The service offers downlink speeds of 22MBp and upload speeds of 6MBps, as well as voice calling.
The operator said the technology was being rolled out because of poor coverage in some of its markets. In Austria, around one percent of buildings do not have access to its infrastructure. Buildings in remote regions are too far away from base stations of switching centres to enable viable mobile broadband.
It added that almost one third of all households across its entire footprint also have no internet access.
There are plans to extend the service to other Telekom Austria Group markets this year.
The deal follows one the operator signed with Eutelsat in September 2013 to offer television services across its markets in central and south-east Europe.
Stefan Amon, Director Wholesale Telekom Austria Group, said: “We are delighted to be able to announce the expansion of our partnership with Eutelsat.
“Based on these broadband services, we are now in a position to reach those remotely located areas across our operating footprint, which have not had access to our internet infrastructure to date.
“SAT broadband is therefore a perfect supplement to our existing network infrastructure as it allows us to meet this additional demand for internet coverage.”
Jean-Francois Fenech, General Manager at Eutelsat Broadband, added: “This agreement and our relationship with Telekom Austria Group is the perfect example of how Eutelsat can work with international telecom operators to assist them to offer high-value multimedia services to their customers across Europe.
“We are delighted to now be delivering broadband services alongside TAG’s DTH platform to make triple play a reality across central and eastern Europe and to further contribute to bridging the digital divide in the region.”
Last year, Eutelsat partnered with BICS to bring satellite broadband to remote areas of Africa. It also signed deals with Panasonic and Telefónica to enable inflight Wi-Fi.
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