Eutelsat and ViaSat have announced that they're partnering up in a joint satellite venture, and ViaSat has further revealed its intention to kick-off the ViaSat-3 "ultra-high capacity satellite platform".
Said platform consists of three ViaSat-3 class satellites (along with the accompanying ground-based infrastructure), and apparently construction of the first two satellites has already begun by both ViaSat and Boeing Satellite Systems.
The plan is that these satellite systems will be able to deliver a 100Mbps plus broadband service to residential users which will be able to cope with even heavy duty tasks such as 4K video streaming.
That will doubtless be (streamed) music to the ears of those who live in remote rural areas where connection speeds are still woefully slow. As two of the satellites will cover EMEA, that should hopefully include the UK (the third satellite is earmarked for Asia-Pacific coverage).
Affordable price
ViaSat also says that its high-speed satellite broadband will be affordable, too, so fingers crossed on the price front.
The delivery date for the satellite systems is estimated at 2019, which as ISPreview (the site that spotted this development) notes will likely mean it'll be 2020 before the offering goes live.
As for Eutelsat and ViaSat's venture in Europe, the two companies are partnering up to help ViaSat's expansion into the continent, and to push forward with Eutelsat's broadband products, offering a fresh consumer service in Europe.
The partnership will initially use KA-SAT, Eutelsat's high throughput broadband satellite, but will more than likely leverage ViaSat-3 down the line when it's operational.
Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat, commented: "The joint venture combines an unprecedented collection of expertise in satellite operations and technology, broadband networks, and wholesale and retail distribution throughout Europe that forms the foundation for next-generation internet services. We're excited to be working with Eutelsat to bring a proven model to the European and Mediterranean markets."
Of course, while big headline download speeds are impressive, there are other issues with satellite broadband including latency (high pings, the nemesis of the online gamer in particular) and potential data usage caps.
