More HD satellites for Europe
As you probably already know the satellites that Sky currently uses for its standard definition service and will use for its High Definition TV services are called Astra and are operated by SES out of Luxembourg, Well it seems Astra may soon have a rival. Screen media specialist Avanti has secured £25million worth of funding to build and launch its own satellite to provide HD and broadband services.
It is not entirely clear how much this will impact on the UK as the company ahs been talking up addressing the ‘digital divide’ problem identified by the European Union and serving parts of the Europe that don’t have access to terrestrial broadband services.
Nevertheless Avanti clearly has big plans and has lots of bandwidth to spare. ‘We will be able to offer triple play services – media, data and VoIP – from space’, says David Williams, Avanti’s chief executive. ‘The satellite we are launching can service up to 170,000 broadband customers or broadcast up to 1,000 digital TV channels’. More here.
