High-speed Internet service is on its way to German customers who live in regions not served by DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), thanks to a new DSL-via-satellite connection to be offered by Deutsche Telekom AG.

The service, implemented as a pilot project last November, will be launched publicly in early May, the Bonn-based company announced at a news conference here Monday in advance of the CeBIT trade show.

The satellite connection will allow customers to use a "Downstream Turbo" with data speeds of up to 768K bps (bits per second), and will be accessed automatically only as needed, for example when loading a Web page with multiple elements or video streaming. Downloading of smaller data quantities, and all uploading, will take place via a slower telephone modem or ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).

DT has come under fire for leaving as many as 10 percent of customers locked out of its fixed-line DSL service. Many neighborhoods, especially in the former East Germany, were wired with all-fiber connections in the early 1990s, in what was then termed a forward-looking policy. But at present, with the focus of DT's broadband efforts on DSL via existing copper wires, those fiber connections enable nothing faster than ISDN's maximum 64K bps.

Two pricing models will be available for the DSL-via-satellite service. The first, at

» posted by abennett

IDG News Service

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