[SatNews] Following the successful completion of all scheduled manoeuvres since launch, the KA-SAT satellite is now positioned at its definitive location in geostationary orbit at 9 degrees East.

Ordered by Eutelsat from EADS Astrium, KA-SAT is entirely innovative in design. The satellite is configured with more than 80 spotbeams, with a network of ten ground stations connecting to the Internet backbone. The KA-SAT program will deliver efficient resources for the mass-market delivery of the Tooway™ consumer broadband service, targeted at users across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin located beyond range of ADSL networks. With a throughput of more than 70 Gigabits per second, KA-SAT will be capable of serving over one million users who expect bandwidth and prices comparable to ADSL2 performance.

Eutelsat will also drive the development of satellite-based consumer broadband services with triple-play capability, by combining broadband services in the Ka-band, through KA-SAT, with the reception of TV channels in the Ku-band. In order to facilitate the availability of high-performance triple-play equipment at competitive prices.