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A new Dutch company is set to offer broadband services via satellite in Europe later this year.

Aramiska - which is backed by VC outfit, Whitney & Co, an original backer of Compaq - is to hold a press briefing in London next week to outline details of its service described as the industry's "first two-way, open standard broadband connectivity service".

Introducing Aramiska, the company said: "Industry research shows that Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) broadband connectivity, delayed by slow local loop unbundling and European coverage less than 50 per cent, is holding back broadband take-up.

"The new Aramiska approach is the first solution to address this 'Broadband Bottleneck', and is set to dramatically reshape the broadband landscape across Europe.

That's some claim.

Yesterday, Tiscali announced its plans to offer a pan-European two-way satellite broadband Internet service from Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. Roll-out of the new service is expected to begin in the autumn.

Chatting to The Register Andy Frost, VP International Access development & value added services at Tiscali, declined to say how much its satellite service would cost punters.

However, he said there would not be a single price for Europe. Instead, each country would be priced depending on "profitability and local market dynamics".

He added that at the moment, broadband is not currently a mass market product. Instead, he said it appealed more to business users and early adopters.

"Consumers are only just adopting unmetered narrowband products," he said. ®

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