KA-SAT takes broadband to the final frontier

The KA-SAT satellite could be the answer to the UK's digital divide

Europe is in a quandary. Over 30 million people cannot get access to broadband, or any worthwhile broadband connection, and yet governments are fully aware that getting citizens online is vital to their economies.

Some nations have gone as far as making broadband access a fundamental right for all citizens. Switzerland did so in 2007, and Finland and Spain have plans to do so in the near future.

Further commitments abound: the UK has promised a 2Mbit/s connection for all by 2015, Spain has set aside €5.1bn to provide 1Mbit/s to all by 2011, and the European Union has launched a drive to provide access for every citizen by 2013.

But the geography of Europe does not make this an easy task. Mountains, valleys, woodlands, vast tracts of wilderness, coupled with the remote locations of millions of people, all make the logistics of rolling out broadband hugely complex.

However, perhaps there is a workable and cost-effective solution in the form of satellite broadband.

As our initial report highlighted, the new KA-SAT under construction at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company's (EADS') manufacturing complex in Toulouse could be key to changing the broadband landscape across Europe.

Satellite technology has been viewed somewhat dubiously as a viable means of providing broadband, but that could change if the claims of KA-SAT owner Eutelsat are accurate.

Eutelsat has stated that it will offer throughput of 70Gbit/s, almost 35 times more than traditional KU-band satellites, and deliver broadband speeds of 10Mbit/s downlink, and between 2Mbit/s and 4Mbit/s uplink, to homes and businesses alike.

"From Portugal to Turkey, and Iceland to the tip of Africa, the KA-SAT will be able to provide broadband to over one million new customers," said Guillaume Benoit, project manager at KA-SAT, at an event in Toulouse last week.

Final preparations are still being carried out on the satellite, but it is expected to launch later this year from a dedicated launching facility at Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Sending a fully functioning satellite into space presents many challenges, as Gerard Berger, marketing manager for Astrium, the division of EADS charged with building the satellite, explained.

"The KA-SAT will be tested in a thermal vacuum chamber where it will be subjected to temperatures ranging from minus 170 to 120 degrees over a week-long period," he said.

"It will then be tested on its ability to withstand the pressure of a rocket launch, with acoustic and shock testing carried out on the module."

Once the tests are complete, and three years after construction first started, the satellite will be strapped to a rocket built by launch firm Proton and fired into a geo-stationary orbit 22,000 miles above the planet.