Italian Space Agency to Cooperate With Eutelsat and Skylogic on Broadband Connectivity in Italy

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Italian Space Agency to Cooperate With Eutelsat and Skylogic on Broadband Connectivity in Italy

ASI Signs Memorandum of Understanding With Skylogic to use Eutelsat's KA-SAT High Throughput Satellite

PARIS and ROME, July 4, 2011/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

    ASI, the Italian Space Agency today announced an agreement with Eutelsat
Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) to use the new KA-SAT High Throughput
Satellite in order to develop broadband connectivity for public
administrations in Italy. The agreement was signed by Enrico Saggese,
President of ASI, and Arduino Patacchini, CEO of Skylogic, the Eutelsat
affiliate that provides broadband services through KA-SAT.

    Eutelsat's high-capacity KA-SAT infrastructure is a powerful new
platform for extending broadband access to users beyond range of terrestrial
networks. ASI is planning the progressive use of 550 Mbps of KA-SAT capacity
across 10 spotbeams that together provide full coverage of Italian
territory. The capacity will mainly be deployed to deliver broadband to
Italian public administrations beyond range of terrestrial networks so that
the benefits of ICT can be extended to citizens located in previously
underserved regions.

    A Public Private Partnership will be set up by ASI with the private
sector to deploy broadband services for Italian institutional and government
entities. These will include the Tooway? service, which is delivered
through KA-SAT, and offers users broadband speeds of up to 10 Mbps
downstream and 4 Mbps upstream. In addition, ASI will cooperate with
Skylogic to access KA-SAT and to define integration schemes between
Tooway? and the capacity that ASI foresees to have on its own satellites
in the future.

    Enrico Saggese, President of ASI, said: "ASI is looking carefully after
the overall Italian satellite telecommunications strategy, with the
objective of deploying state-of-the-art infrastructure to cover the needs of
institutional customers. We think that exploiting the public-private
partnership in this field will be very beneficial, for both the efficiency
and the effectiveness of the relevant programmes. This agreement with
Eutelsat and Skylogic is fully consistent with our objectives and opens wide
cooperation perspectives, for the benefit of the Italian institutions and
citizens."

    Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat CEO, added: "This agreement with ASI is a new
example of how our powerful and flexible KA-SAT infrastructure can be used
to efficiently and quickly equalise access to the benefits of broadband. We
are delighted to build this new relationship with Italy's National Space
Agency, which is committed to exploiting the strengths of satellite
telecommunications for increasing knowledge and developing a culture of high
technology in Italy."

    In service since May 2011, Eutelsat's high-capacity all Ka-band system,
combining satellite and on-ground infrastructure, opens a new chapter in the
market for satellite-based IP services. Its revolutionary concept is based
on a payload with 82 narrow spotbeams connected to 10 ground stations. This
configuration enables frequencies to be reused 20 times and takes total
throughput to beyond 70 Gbps. The ground network uses ViaSat's SurfBeam(R) 2
technology, an advanced version of the technology already powering broadband
connectivity for 500,000 satellite homes in North America. The combination
of KA-SAT's exceptional capacity and SurfBeam(R) 2 enables Internet
connectivity to be delivered at speeds comparable to ADSL for more than one
million homes in Europe and large parts of the Mediterranean Basin.

    About ASI

    The Italian Space Agency was founded in 1988. Its purpose was to
coordinate all of Italy's efforts and investments in the space sector that
had begun in the 1960s. In 20 years, ASI became one of the most significant
players in the world in space science, satellite technologies and the
development of mobile systems for exploring the Universe. Today, ASI has a
key role at the European level where Italy is the third contributor country
to the European Space Agency. It also is involved at the international
level. For example, ASI has a close working relationship with NASA, which
has led to its participation in many of the most interesting scientific
missions of recent years. One of the most fascinating projects has been the
construction and activities of the International Space Station where Italian
astronauts are by now at home. Thanks to ASI's efforts, the Italian
scientific community has had unprecedented successes in recent years in
astrophysics and cosmology, contributing among other things to
reconstructing the first moments of life in the universe or making essential
steps towards understanding the gamma ray bursts phenomenon. Furthermore,
ASI has contributed significantly to space exploration by building
scientific instruments that are aboard NASA and ESA probes bound for
discovering the secrets of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In all of the major
missions planned for future years-from Venus to the comets, up to the outer
limits of our solar system-there will be a piece of Italy.

    http://www.asi.it

    About Eutelsat Communications

    Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234)
is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A. With capacity commercialised on 27
satellites that provide coverage over the entire European continent, as well
as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the
Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world's three leading satellite operators
in terms of revenues. At March 31, 2011, Eutelsat's satellites were
broadcasting more than 3,800 television channels to over 200 million cable
and satellite homes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Group's
satellites also serve a wide range of fixed and mobile telecommunications
services, TV contribution markets, corporate networks, and broadband markets
for Internet Service Providers and for transport, maritime and in-flight
markets. Eutelsat's broadband subsidiary, Skylogic, markets and operates
access to high speed Internet services through teleports in France and Italy
that serve enterprises, local communities, government agencies and aid
organisations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Headquartered in
Paris, Eutelsat and its subsidiaries employ 700 commercial, technical and
operational employees from 28 countries.

    http://www.eutelsat.com

    http://www.tooway.com

Source: Eutelsat Communications

For more information: ASI media relations, +39(0)6-8567431, +39(0)6-8567305, stampa@asi.it; Press
Vanessa O'Connor, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-37-91, voconnor@eutelsat.fr; Frédérique Gautier, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-37-91, fgautier@eutelsat.fr; Investors & Analysts Lisa Sanders Finas, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-35-30
investors@eutelsat-communications.com

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