[SatNews] High speed broadband will makes its way to remote areas...

Eutelsat Communications, (Euronext Paris: ETL) has announced a distribution agreement between its Skylogic subsidiary and TeliaSonera, enabling the telecoms company to provide the Tooway™ satellite broadband service in Finland. TeliaSonera will use the Tooway™ service, which will be delivered via Eutelsat’s new KA-SAT satellite, to help close the digital divide by providing high-speed broadband services to customers beyond the reach of terrestrial or wireless networks. Under the agreement, the service will roll-out first in Finland, with TeliaSonera expecting to connect thousands of customers to Tooway™ over the next three years. With download speeds of up to 10 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 4 Mbps, Tooway™ satellite broadband will bring fast, reliable and affordable Internet access for TeliaSonera customers in areas with limited alternative solutions for broadband. The Tooway™ solution consists of a small satellite dish and a modem connected to the PC via Ethernet, giving customers Internet access with no need for a telephone line. This new-generation Tooway™ service will be delivered via Eutelsat’s innovative KA-SAT satellite, which was launched in December 2010 and is on track to go into full commercial service mid-2011. With its total capacity of more than 70 Gbps, KA-SAT is Europe's first High-Throughput Satellite (HTS), will usher in a new era of competitively-priced, satellite-delivered services for homes and small businesses across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. The satellite forms the cornerstone of a new European satellite infrastructure which includes eight main satellite gateways across Europe connected to the Internet by a fibre backbone ring.