Dubai: Home internet service prices could fall by two-thirds, thanks to one of two new Abu Dhabi-backed satellites to be launched next year by Yahsat.
According to Shawkat Ahmad, Yahsat Chief Commercial Officer, the cost for a regular Yahsat monthly home internet package could be as low as Dh117 beginning 2012.
Broadband service
"It is a revolutionary satellite to offer this service," Ahmad told XPRESS in an interview at Satellite MENA 2010 conference in Dubai. "Our new satellite will offer broadband service in 27 countries."
Yahsat is 100 per cent owned by the Abu Dhabi government's investment arm Mubadala Development Company and is set to launch Yahsat 1 in the first quarter of 2011 and Yahsat 2 in the fourth quarter of the same year.
YahClick services
Ahmad said it's new YahClick services will do more than just bring inexpensive internet services to Africa and the Middle East - the new service will be much faster as well.
Compared to some current internet speeds of 512 kbps, the new Yahsat will offer 16 mbps, a Herculean jump in bandwidth speed that will usher parts of the MENA region into the 21st century, he said, allowing home and business users to compete with their western counterparts.
