Paris, Rome, 25 June 2015 – Services in 300 of Poste Italiane’s most rural locations are set to be transformed following signature of a contract for high-speed satellite broadband connectivity between the broadband affiliate of Eutelsat Communications (NYSE Euronext Paris: ETL) and Poste Mobile, the network infrastructure provider for Poste Italiane. The agreement will enable Poste Italiane offices located beyond terrestrial broadband to provide the public with the same level of service as in branches in major towns and cities. Staff will also gain improved office IT and telecommunications services that will benefit their customers.
Using its powerful KA-SAT satellite, Eutelsat Broadband has been selected by Poste Mobile to install, manage and maintain a high-speed satellite communications network between post office locations. The first 120 locations will be connected by the end of 2015 with the additional 180 post offices to follow in 2016.
The agreement is a game-changer for Italian post offices limited to ISDN connections that will now benefit from accelerated download speeds of up to 22Mbps and upload speeds of up to 6 Mbps. The vastly increased performance will enable Italy’s national postal service to enhance postal, insurance and banking services to the public as well as back-office operations.
Using the increased reliability and capacity of Eutelsat’s broadband service, Poste Italiane has also successfully tested additional public and back-office services that can be rolled-out in the future. These include public wi-fi access in post offices, security surveillance options and videoconferencing facilities.
Fabrizio Virtuani, CEO of Poste Mobile, said: “Whether in a major city or the remotest rural village, ensuring Poste Italiane customers have universal access to our postal, banking and insurance services is a key objective for us. By using Eutelsat Broadband’s satellite communications we can achieve this goal and propose further benefits and services.”
“This national deployment programme will step up service for Poste Italiane customers and staff working in the most rural offices and underlines the quality and reliability of our connectivity solutions,” said Jean-Francois Fenech, General Manager of Eutelsat Broadband. “Our high-speed satellite services play a vital role in bringing the essential benefits of digital communications to users trapped in the Digital Divide and we are delighted to have the opportunity to demonstrate this value with a significant deployment initiative across Italy.”
Connectivity services provided by Eutelsat Broadband are designed to meet the needs of SOHOs and businesses within the footprint of the KA-SAT satellite that covers Europe, North Africa and large parts of the Middle East. Services are optimised for users in locations where fixed line connectivity is slow or unavailable and also for businesses that need an alternative to fixed line broadband for critical applications such as disaster recovery or back-up. Eutelsat Broadband offers a wide range of data allowances up to 200GB a month and a host of flexible B2B features including Public IP addresses, Business Hour Protection and a range of customisable options including guaranteed bandwidth speeds.
For further information on Eutelsat Broadband’s business solutions or its distributors visit: www.eutelsatbroadband.com
Poste italiane
Poste Italiane’s logistics and technology infrastructure is the largest and most extensive in the country, providing, in addition to postal services, integrated communication, logistics, financial, insurance and mobile telephony products and services to consumers, businesses and the public sector throughout Italy. With its network of post offices located throughout the country, Poste Italiane serves over 37 million customers. Its widespread presence around the country, extensive experience and use of new technologies, have enabled Poste Italiane to play a leading role in the process of economic and social development in Italy.
PosteMobile
PosteMobile is the mobile operator of Poste Italiane Group. On the market since the end of 2007, it currently has around 3 million active customers.
PosteMobile develops and offers mobile information, transaction and communication solutions, integrated with a portfolio of useful services within the Poste Italiane Group.
PosteMobile’s marketing proposition includes a set of distinctive and unique services, both SIM-based and application-based, combining traditional mobile-phone services with innovative mobile financial services, covering m-banking, m-payment, and m-commerce services.
About Eutelsat Communications
Established in 1977, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is one of the world’s leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. The company provides capacity on 34 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies. Eutelsat’s satellites provide ubiquitous coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, enabling video, data, broadband and government communications to be established irrespective of a user’s location. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat represents a workforce of 1,000 men and women from 32 countries who are experts in their fields and work with clients to deliver the highest quality of service.
For more about Eutelsat please visit www.eutelsat.com