The Societe Europeenee des Satellites, the Luxembourg-based satellite broadcaster that plans to start delivering the Internet via satellite later this year, and iBEAM Broadcasting Corp. [IBEM], a two-year-old Silicon Valley company that specializes in delivering the Internet to users, have formed a joint venture to carry out SES’s project.

SES has previously announced plans to use thousands of hybrid Ku-/Ka-band earth stations to deliver two-way Internet service directly to large corporations, small and medium- size business and the SOHO (small office, home office) market throughout Europe. Contracts to supply the earth stations have been awarded.

SES’s joint venture with iBEAM takes the plan a step further into the tangled web that is the Internet.

iBEAM works closely with Internet Service Providers, high-speed cable TV operators, digital subscriber line (DSL) services and other Internet access providers. The company said it uses both satellite and fiber optic media to deliver streaming Internet content to “the ISPs’ points of presence as close as possible to end-users, thus bypassing the congestion and packet loss associated with the Internet.”