HANNOVER, Germany–The world’s leading manufacturer of microprocessors for personal computers, looking to solve what it sees as a shortage of bandwidth across Europe, has joined forces with a key European satellite operator to form a new company dedicated to bringing high-speed data transmission capabilities to people across the continent, reports SATELLITE NEWS Contributing Editor Chris Bulloch.

At a news conference during the CEBIT ’97 Fair in Hannover, Germany, officials of Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites–operator of the Astra fleet of television distribution satellites–and U.S-based Intel Corp. [INTC], said the two companies will together create European Satellite Multimedia Services SA (ESM).

PTT Luxembourg also will own a piece of ESM, which will market its service under the name Astra-Net. ESM’s initial capitalization reportedly will be $15 million. The new concern will deliver Internet-based material, primarily the World Wide Web, via satellite to personal computers throughout most of Europe, at data rates far in excess of those obtainable via the fastest telephone modems, or even ISDN lines. Download rates of 6 megabits per directly into a high-performance PC are promised; speeds as high as 38 megabits per second may be possible using high-end servers. Trials are set to begin in May, with commercial operations starting later this summer.

Data uplinks to the satellite will be at SES’s Luxembourg headquarters, where equipment for packaging, multiplexing and hosting services is already installed. SES will also provide subscriber management services.

SATELLITE NEWS European Correspondent Theo Pirard attended the press conference and reports that while SES will hold the majority share in ESM, SES Chairman Romain Bausch said other partners are may join the partnership. Possibilities include British Telecom or Deutsche Telekom–which already is involved indirectly through its existing 16.25 percent share of SES.

The new venture will compete head-on with Hughes Electronics Corp.’s [GMH] DirecPC service, offered in Europe via the Eutelsat 2 (F3) satellite. Eutelsat spokeswoman Vanessa O’Connor said her company provides better coverage and is planning to further upgrade its service to counter Astra-Net.