Eutelsat has announced a significant move as it aims to boost its broadband presence in Europe. It is teaming up with ViaSat to jointly offer an “affordable, high-quality” consumer broadband service in underserved markets in Europe. The deal will see Eutelsat initially roll out in June a broadband service to each Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. How successful Eutelsat may prove to be will be affected by how countries such as Germany already are well-served by terrestrial broadband alternatives.

The new service will be based on the ViaSat SurfBeam Docsis two-way broadband satellite system. The system is already used in North America by WildBlue Communications, which already has over 100,000 customers in the U.S. since launching in 2005.