[10-02-07 – Satellite Today]  Eutelsat has been awarded a satellite broadband contract by Diputacion Provincial de Zaragoza to service 120 communities in Saragossa region in northern Spain, Eutelsat announced Oct. 1.

Saragossa is the first region in Spain to initiate a universal broadband program mobilizing multiple access technologies including satellite. D-Star, a service provided by Eutelsat subsidiary Skylogic, will provide the satellite component of a regional broadband program dubbed  Zaragoza Internet Provincial.

Each site will be equipped with Skylogic’s D-Star two-way broadband system, which consists of a 96-centimeter antenna and an indoor unit the size of DVD player. The terminals communicate through a satellite connection on Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird 1 satellite to Skylogic’s teleport in Turin, which has direct access to the Internet backbone. The D-Star terminals also are connected to Wi-Fi hot spots in a number of villages in order to extend Internet connectivity.