Jorma Hämäläinen, TeliaSonera’s director of satellite services, told the IBC E-Daily that Ka-band has forced a change in the operator’s thinking. When asked if Ka-band made a huge difference to its thinking when deploying a broadband service, Hämäläinen says, “Yes, it did [make a difference]. Previously, when we had been talking about satellite Internet service, we saw it as too expensive. With Ka-Sat, we now see such services as much more competitive. The speeds available are also much higher than before. As well as higher speeds, these services are now much easier to install. In terms of revenues, it might not equate to a huge amount, but it is important in terms of building suitable cost-effective services and customer loyalty.”

If successful, it could be taken outside of Finland. “We see this as the first real cost-effective solution to provide satellite Internet services in Scandinavia. We are starting in Finland to see what impact it has first in Finland, and then we might look at other markets. But, the initial pilot will be Finland,” adds Hämäläinen.

   The operator has now started a trial involving a satellite broadband service based on Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat satellite. In terms of how satellite fits in to its plans, Hämäläinen says, “This service package is different from what we have in terms of 3G and mobile services. But, we want to see our customers’ reaction to satellite services and what sorts of expectations they have for this sort of service. So, we want to get a little more information about how they are seeing this service. In Finland, we are building up mobile and fiber networks, so there won’t be huge coverage gaps. We are testing the satellite broadband service among consumer and corporate customers, such as construction companies. We can also use satellite as a way of boosting our 3G coverage. In some areas we are having capacity shortages, so we can use satellite to pick up the slack.”

   Finland, which perhaps had always been seen as more of a wireless market, could now start to see satellite make an impact, and not just in terms of DTH. TeliaSonera, a combination of the national telcos of Sweden (Telia) and Finland (Sonera), is a major presence across the communications landscape in both countries. In Finland, Sonera has also launched an IPTV service; however, the geography of the country means satellite has become an attractive option. “Our country Finland is quite long. We have about 18 inhabitants per square kilometer. Around a third of the population is in the Southern part of Finland. There are a lot of rural areas in the country, and it is difficult and challenging to provide sufficient speed via fixed-lined services. Of course every day we are building up our fiber capability and 3G/4G services, but there are customers who are not very well provided by those services. This is the reason why we need to have these satellite services in the near future. This will be a good tool for us to provide these new connection services to customers. Satellite services can now provide up to 6-10 Mbps in terms of speeds,” says Hämäläinen.

   With a lot of competition in the market from different communications technologies, the use of satellite could give TeliaSonera an edge in serving rural communities in Finland. “There is a radio network based Internet service in Finland and several WiMAX solutions, but they are providing limited capacity. One of the key factors regarding markets in Scandinavia is there is a lot of competition in all of the different markets,” says Hämäläinen.  “So, providing value is a key thing. Customers are interested in having cost-effective solutions so that is why we are looking at Ka-Sat in these difficult to reach areas. There are some Ku-band services available, but we want coverage in Finland based on this new Ka-band service.”

   For Eutelsat, the deal with TeliaSonera is highly significant as it indicates a change in telco thinking, and more deals like this will validate the considerable investment in the Ka-Sat satellite. Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat’s CEO, says the market for broadband based on Ka-band is beginning to open up. He says, “The entry into service of Ka-Sat on May 31 was a milestone event for Eutelsat, and on a wider scale, for the overall broadband landscape in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. It coincided with an update on the Digital Scorecard by Neelie Kroes, EU vice president. She indicated that 10 million homes in the EU27 are still not served by broadband and that satellite is one of the core technologies that will help reach these users in order to meet the EU objective of broadband for all citizens by 2013. This unserved market will drive demand for services through Ka-Sat.”

   Maxime Baudry, a satellite analyst at IDATE, also sees growth opportunities for satellite broadband in markets such as the Middle East and Europe. He says, “Several regions are attractive [for Ka-band] but we consider the Middle East as one of the most promising at the moment. Africa could also be a good bet but some obstacles still exist there. Europe is also an interesting market but with lower opportunities, as DSL is very well implemented there [about 95 percent coverage of the population in most countries]. In this region, we also see a strong development of mobile broadband though 3G and LTE to come in the coming months/years.”