Multimedia applications such as high-speed Internet access via satellite and other broadband data services are to form the focus of presentations by satellite operators Eutelsat and SES at the IFA consumer electronics in Berlin, which takes place from August 28 to September 5.

Eutelsat will focus on inexpensive high-speed Internet-via-satellite services for end consumers, using both one-way (ie carousel-type) and two-way solutions, the latter making a return path via the conventional telephone line and its often expensive per minute charges unnecessary.

For example, skyDSL, operated by Strato Media, a sister company of Berlin-based multimedia company Teles, and which allows Web page downloads at up to 4Mbit/s, is only a one-way service. This uses capacity rented by Eutelsat on Deutsche Telekom’s DFS Kopernikus 2 satellite. By contrast, genuine two-way communication via satellite is offered by the Irish Web-Sat service, which targets consumers and professionals.

SES, operator of the Astra satellite system, also plans to concentrate its IFA presentation on the various multimedia services available on its satellites. Under the moniker "Your Connection to the World", SES will be showing applications using the Astra-Net platform, which include Internet and online services such as deuromedia’s, Europe Online Network’s Internet in the Sky and NetS@t, which is operated by TechniSat Data Services.