Satellite Broadband Fading Out Slowly

With the arrival of optical fibre communication networks, broadband service has stepped into a new phase. Satellite communication networks, which were popular during the days gone by, is now slowly on the verge of disappearing.

This ignoring of the satellite communication network by the broadband officials in UK is the latest complaint among the providers. They are pointing out that the government is not giving serious importance to the satellite communication, which will be a good option for broadband in rural areas.

Though the UK government targets to supply broadband connections to all homes with a minimum of 2Mbits/sec, the service providers and local authorities are finding it hard to expand the £530 million budget. The officials believe that the 4G services will fill the shortfall in the broadband services.

The thing that matters is the over data costs and less availability. So they will have to depend on other technologies to fill the gaps where fibre projects are not successful due to the high costs.

Although this is the case, the disappointing thing is that satellite broadband has been largely ignored. The providers are worried that even though this is a universal provision, government officials are always focusing more on the big rollouts from major tech companies.

Chris O’Dell, vice president of satellite equipment provider Hughes Network Systems, reveals that the heads of big companies like BT and Fujitsu were busy in talking about the rollout and the problems held at a forum in Westminster. In August, Ofcom commented that 14 percent of UK homes are not getting broadband access at 2Mbits/sec.

They show that 100 percent coverage can be obtained using satellite communication. O’Dell also reminded that Ka band satellite services can provide 10Mbits/sec downloads and 2Mbits/sec uploads with no disturbances or fibre rollouts.

One thing that pulls back the satellite communication is the high expense. The services are of higher costs that the ADSL offerings which are often heavily throttled, depending on usage. Based on the service providers and virtual network operators, the users will get packages around £20 for the lower ones and £40 for the 10Mbits/sec download.

While comparing to price of fixed-line services, this is a bit higher but the users will never get the above speeds for the fixed-line connections. Though the UK government is not giving much importance to the satellite services, other parts of Europe are promoting this method by providing funds and subsidies for installations.

Currently in the UK, satellite projects are limited to Wales, Kent and Cornwall. This is indeed slow comparing to the growth in other areas of Europe.