African and Middle Eastern very small aperture terminal (VSAT) service provider Egyptsat will distribute Eutelsat’s Tooway Ka-band satellite broadband service in rural Egypt under an agreement with Eutelsat subsidiary Skylogic.
In a press release dated Aug. 29, Paris-based Eutelsat said the six-year deal is valued at 20 million euros ($29 million). Tooway is a partnership between Eutelsat and U.S. satellite broadband provider ViaSat of Carlsbad, Calif. Eutelsat provides capacity aboard its Hot Bird 6 and Ka-Sat satellites; ViaSat supplies the user equipment.
The Egyptian market will be served by a Ka-Sat spot beam dedicated to that country, the press release said.
“Tooway is the best fit for Egypt’s new era, with Internet users increasing from 21 million to 25.4 million just after the 25th January revolution,” Mohamed Elghamry, Eygptsat’s chief executive, said in a prepared statement. “The service is expected to meet the significant demand in the Egyptian territory and the region, where too many places are in deep need for high speed Internet at reasonable cost.”