New Record for Eutelsat's KA-SAT Satellite: Datagroup Equips Over 12,600 Voting Booths in the Ukraine With Satellite Broadband
PARIS, November 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
During the Ukraine's parliamentary elections of October 28, the KA-SAT satellite of
Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) demonstrated its unique capacity to deliver
massive data bandwidth to multiple sites, allowing real time video monitoring of over
12,600 polling stations.
During election day and the following night, KA-SAT managed 25,000 simultaneous
videostreams, representing total throughput of 2.5Gbps. This is the equivalent of a fully
loaded medium-capacity satellite but only a fraction of the total 90Gbps available via
KA-SAT.
Datagroup, a leading service provider for data communications and a longstanding
Eutelsat partner selected KA-SAT to ensure that one in three polling stations in the
Ukraine was able to transmit webcam recordings on behalf of the Ukraine's Central Election
Commission. Following this experience, Datagroup announced today in Kiev that it will use
KA-SAT to launch consumer broadband services across the Ukraine from 1 December.
Over a record four weeks leading up to the election, more than 12,600 KA-SAT terminals
were deployed by Datagroup and activated on the KA-SAT network at an average pace of 500
terminals a day. This significant effort was achieved thanks to the easy installation of
KA-SAT terminals that are already used by thousands of consumers across Europe for the
Tooway broadband service. The network performance during the elections outperformed all
Datagroup's expectations, enabling observers to monitor video streams on the Internet in
real time.
Alexandre Danchenko, CEO of Datagroup said: "Our experience with KA-SAT and Eutelsat
during the elections enabled us to assess the exceptional performance, reliability and
scalability of the KA-SAT infrastructure. We are delighted to move forward with the launch
of consumer satellite broadband services which put the modernisation of our country's
infrastructure into a new perspective by enabling users in remote regions to immediately
benefit from high-speed Internet."
Jean-Francois Fenech, CEO of Skylogic, Eutelsat's broadband affiliate, commented:
"This massive and fast deployment could only be efficiently achieved using the KA-SAT
platform. It highlights how our technology is meeting and even surpassing expectations,
and underlines how Eutelsat's decision to pursue a High Throughput Satellite model is
fully in line with the broadband expectations of today's users. Our collaboration with
Datagroup also paves the way for bridging the digital divide in the Ukraine, enabling
users to benefit from broadband in the many locations neglected by other technologies."
Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is the holding
company of Eutelsat S.A. With capacity commercialised on 29 satellites that provide
coverage across Europe, as well as the Middle East, Africa and significant parts of Asia
and the Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world's three leading satellite operators. As of
30 September 2012 Eutelsat's satellites were broadcasting more than 4,400 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 high speed Internet
services through teleports in France and Italy that serve consumers, enterprises, local
communities, government agencies and aid organisations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the
Americas. Headquartered in Paris, Eutelsat and its subsidiaries employ just over 750
commercial, technical and operational professionals. This culturally diverse staff
comprises employees from 30 countries. http://www.eutelsat.com