Despite the quiet growth of Eutelsat’s ‘Tooway’ and SES Astra’s Astra2Connect services, it is fair to say that European broadband-by-satellite hasn’t been a runaway success. That could be about to change, and for the better, says a new report from NSR.
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Data from consultancy Northern Sky Research (NSR) statets that even in
the past 6 months there’s been considerable progress. Besides good work
from Eutelsat and Astra, NSR suggests that the French ‘Numerique 2012’
plan heralds more progress as suppliers (including France Telecom-owned
Orange) looks to supply service to at least 1.7% of the population
which are in the aDSL ‘white space’ regions where there will never be a
land-based broadband service.
There are more green shoots in Ireland where its communications
ministry is backing a 10-point plan to serve the minimum of 10% of its
population which again live in rural regions, and supplying service
between 2009-2010.
Thirdly, and perhaps most important of all is the European Union’s
efforts to make mandatory a universal access proposal right across
Europe. The EU is looking for legislation to come in during 2010.
