Canaal Digitaal to offer broadband Internet via satellite

SES Astra, and Dutch satellite service provider Canaal Digitaal have announced an agreement for the provision of Broadband Internet services via the Astra Satellite System.

Canaal Digitaal will offer the satellite internet service to Direct-To-Home (DTH) households, especially those which cannot be served by xDSL or broadband cable.

Although large parts of the Netherlands have access to xDSL and cable, there is a high demand for broadband Internet services outside these areas. Over 600.000 DTH homes already subscribe to Canaal Digitaal TV and radio services.

The Canaal Digitaal Internet offering will be based on a hybrid solution, using the satellite for downloading and GPRS, Edge or a telephone line for uploading. Initially three downstream capacities will be offered: 256 Kbps, 512 Kbps and 768 Kbps. Canaal Digitaal will select Telecom operators and technology partners to support this new service. The goal is to start the introduction of the service in the fourth quarter of this year. Details on pricing will be disclosed shortly.

Andy Sennitt comments: In my opinion, none of these speeds can be considered broadband by today's standards. Five years ago, maybe. Not just in the Netherlands, but also in countries such as the UK, services which are far too slow to allow comfortable viewing of high quality TV or movie feeds are being promoted as 'broadband'.

From personal experience, I would say that 1 Mbps is the absolute minimum requirement to watch movies. Here, I started with 1 Mbps ADSL which has subsequently been increased to a theoretical 8 Mbps, though because of my distance from the telephone exchange I cannot get above 4.5 Mbps. With a 1 Mbps connection I was not able to watch high quality video feeds without a lot of breaks and rebuffering.

Source: Media Network

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