Europe Launches Broadband Satellite

Thousands of homes and businesses across Europe and the Mediterranean will soon have access to satellite-based broadband thanks to the successful launch of Eutelsat's Ka-Sat from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Yahoo News reports.

This is the third broadband satellite launched in six weeks and is based on the same technology used in the SkyTerra-1, which was launched last month to provide service service across North America.


Ka-Sat launch video
A remarkable piece of equipment, the Ka-Sat comes equipped with 80 spot beams, or focused signals designed to cover an area around a few hundred kilometers across. Each of those beams boasts an overall capacity of 900Mbps to be shared among all users, with a total capacity of 70Gbps.

No word yet on pricing.