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Forthnet Group Signs New Contracts With Eutelsat to Launch Triple Play ServicesPARIS and ATHENS, Greece, August 24, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Forthnet Group, Greece's leading private broadband and pay-TV service provider (under the NOVA brand name), today announced the expansion of its longstanding commercial relationship with Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL). A five-year distribution agreement enabling Forthnet Group to market the new-generation Tooway™ broadband service to users across Greece and Cyprus has been signed with Skylogic, Eutelsat's broadband affiliate. Tooway™ is provided by Eutelsat's powerful KA-SAT High Throughput Satellite, a new wireless broadband infrastructure for Europe. Eutelsat and Forthnet Group have in parallel entered into a broader commercial agreement to ensure future satellite capacity for NOVA at Eutelsat's flagship HOT BIRD™ video neighbourhood in order to launch new premium services and accelerate the acquisition of pay-TV subscribers. With these new contracts, Forthnet Group will be the first operator in Europe to bundle the Tooway™ broadband service with its pay-TV portfolio in order to offer users triple-play services through a single satellite dish and a single subscription. Satellite broadband, with download speeds of up to 10 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 4 Mbps, together with VOIP will start to be commercialised in Q4 2011 and offered in combination with NOVA pay-TV. The full service will be delivered via Tooway™ antennas equipped with a dual-feed in order to access broadband from the KA-SAT satellite and NOVA from the HOT BIRD™ satellites. Yiannis Kavaklis, Forthnet Group's Chief Commercial Officer, commented: "We are particularly satisfied withthe extension of the cooperation of Forthnet Group with Eutelsat Communications. It concerns an agreement that enables us to extend the reach of our broadband and combined broadband and Pay-TV offering to all Greek households, regardless of their geographical location.The combination of premium content offered by NOVA Pay-TV with broadband through Eutelsat's specialised High Throughput Satellite is in line with our strategy to offer affordable, easy to use and quality services to Greek households. Covering unserved areas also presents the Group with the commercial opportunity to extend its broadband customer base beyond its fixed line coverage. This agreement also allows us to complement our Pay-TV offering in Cyprus with high-speed broadband services, offering a complete solution to the dynamic Cypriot market." Andrew Wallace, Eutelsat's Chief Commercial Officer, added: "These new agreements with Forthnet Group underline our commitment to providing clients with a range of state-of-the-art and complementary services that equip them to retain, broaden and diversify their subscriber base. By bundling pay-TV services from our HOT BIRD™ neighbourhood with the Tooway™ broadband service from KA-SAT, Forthnet is leveraging an exceptional opportunity to offer users simple and immediate access to premium programming and Internet access in one package. This is an exciting strategic development that we look forward to sharing with Forthnet so that users beyond terrestrial infrastructure have viewing choice and access to the benefits of broadband." According to a public consultation for the report "White Areas of Greece for 2011" published by the Ministry of Regional Development and Competitiveness for the Digital Agenda, Greece represents a significant market opportunity for satellite broadband. Despite deployment of terrestrial broadband, there are still more than 800,000 unserved citizens in Greece, which ranks 23rd of the EU27 member states in terms of broadband penetration. About Forthnet Group Forthnet Group is the leading private broadband and digital pay-TV service provider in Greece and Cyprus, offering services under Forthnet brand name for Broadband, and Nova for Pay TV services. Forthnet group is characterized by innovation as Internet, ULL, pay-TV and HD services were introduced in the country by the group. Forthnet Group serves over 765.000 households (~18% of Greek households) with 120.000 of them receiving 3play services and more than 20.000 SMEs over an extended retail chain of 135 Forthnet Stores. Forthnet is listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. http://www.forthnet.gr, http://www.nova.gr About Eutelsat Communications Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A.. With capacity commercialised on 27 satellites that provide coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world's three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues. At 30 June 2011, Eutelsat's satellites were broadcasting more than 3,800 television channels. More than 1,100 channels broadcast via its HOT BIRD™ video neighbourhood at 13 degrees East which serves over 120 million cable and satellite homes in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Group's satellites also serve a wide range of fixed and mobile telecommunications services, TV contribution markets, corporate networks, and broadband markets for Internet Service Providers and for transport, maritime and in-flight markets. Eutelsat's broadband subsidiary, Skylogic, markets and operates access to high speed internet services through teleports in France and Italy that serve enterprises, local communities, government agencies and aid organisations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Headquartered in Paris, Eutelsat and its subsidiaries employ just over 700 commercial, technical and operational employees from 30 countries. http://www.eutelsat.com, http://www.tooway.com SOURCE EUTELSAT and FORTHNET |