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According to Educom Micro Systems, it has more than 50 customers for its satellite service, Orbitlink, which was launched in January of this year. Orbitlink's project manager, Brian Lowe, told ElectricNews.Net that the company expected to add between 1,000 and 2,000 customers over the next 12 months.
Lowe said the service was aimed at businesses and consumers who were tired waiting for other broadband Internet access technologies such as ADSL, which has been recently launched by Eircom, or were in remote areas of the country where such technology would not be readily available.
"We found that a lot of people in Dublin were sick of waiting for ADSL to come along and that there are many parts of Ireland where even telephone services aren't easy to come by. For instance, we will be shortly installing three satellite links in the Black Valley in Kerry," commented Lowe. "This service is for people who want ADSL, but can't get it."
Educom's satellite service provides access and download speeds of between 400kb/s and 1Mb/s, which is comparable to those available over ADSL. Orbitlink's pricing begins at EUR169 per month and installation is free.
Lowe admitted that satellite access is not without its downsides, primarily in that it isn't as quick as ADSL when it comes to Web browsing and can be more expensive. However, he added, that it does at the very least match ADSL in terms of downloading speeds.
The company has partnered with Hughes Network Systems, which is a leading international satellite service provider that is ultimately owned by General Motors, to provide the service.
The last year has seen a growing interest in satellite Internet services as Net users clamoured for broadband-type Internet access, but found their options limited. According to research group, Datamonitor, the number of satellite terminals in the world's three major economic regions should increase from an installed based of 293,500 terminals in 2000 to 7.2 million terminals by 2005. Europe will have around 30 percent of these terminals, with North America and Asia-Pacific accounting for 54 and 15 percent respectively.
Founded in 1995 by a group of UCD graduates, Educom primarily provides network and Internet access solutions to SMEs and the education sector. In mid-2001 it decided to branch into offering satellite-based high-speed broadband Internet access due what it perceived as the poor state of the Irish ISP market and the continued "broken promises" regarding the availability of technologies such as ADSL and cable modems.
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