Telekomunikacja Polska is the leading telecommunications operator in Poland. It will expand its extensive service offering and will also provide reliable satellite broadband connections for rural areas. ASTRA2Connect is planned to be offered in three different service packages, download speeds vary from 512 kbit/s to 2,048 kbit/s.

The ASTRA2Connect satellite technology is know for its always-on, highly reliable, Internet access. This includes Internet telephony for flat service fees. A low cost self-installable modem and satellite dish is required. ASTRA2Connect is available in 14 European countries. Its services are marketed via Internet service providers to the residential market.

“With this agreement, Telekomunikacja Polska is now the only telecommunications provider offering fast Internet access everywhere in Poland. The launch of satellite-based Internet services is another example of our activities which will eventually eliminate the white spots in Poland,” said Maciej Witucki, Chairman of the Board of Telekomunikacja Polska. “With the additional satellite service, our customers can now choose from the entire range of possibilities to access the broadband Internet: ADSL, mobile and satellite connections.”

“We are proud to have signed a distribution agreement for ASTRA2Connect with a strong partner such as Telekomunikacja Polska,” said Norbert Willems, Managing Director of ASTRA Broadband Services. “Access to broadband is necessary for economic and social wealth, and in Poland, there are still around two million households which are not covered by terrestrial broadband networks. We strongly believe that together with Telekomunikacja Polska we are offering an ideal solution for these regions: ASTRA2Connect is highly reliable, cost-efficient and immediately available.”

One Way Access will only allow you to receive data from the satellite, therefore the equipment cost will be low. Because there is no way to upload data to the satellite you will need to have it installed in conjunction with a dial-up, cable, dsl or other broadband link. Because a wired connection is still necessary the most important benefit, namely wireless access, is lost. The only scenario in which one way access comes in useful is when a slow dial-up or isdn connection is your only wired option. In that case it will allow you to achieve higher speeds reaching about 3Mbit/s.

Two Way Access will allow a bidirectional connection. Users will be able to send data to the satellite. Because the current mainstream satellite dishes need to be manually directed to a satellite this technology can only be used in combination with geostationary satellites. These satellites remain at a seemingly fixed point hanging above earth. Because of that they need to be further away from earth to escape gravity. This high distance is the main reason for the high latencies that goes paired with current Satellite Internet subscriptions.

A new technology is evolving which makes use of low earth orbit satellites. These satellites are much closer to earth which is definitely a good thing for latencies/pings. Unfortunately to be able to stay at this low altitude they need to move, fast. Transmitting data with the satellite will require dynamic satellite dishes that constantly adjust towards the satellites location. Since at some point the satellite disappears behind the horizon, a new one needs to pass by. Depending on the altitude a minimum of 5 satellites is needed for global coverage. To get the data to the users home other mediums will be used. Wired networks such as fiber, cable, dsl or wireless such as wifi, 3G, EDGE, WiMAX,… o3B is currently deploying low orbit satellites to enable fiber speeds over satellite. The future looks bright for satellite internet providers.