David Williams, the Chief Executive of UK Satellite ISP Avanti Communications, has quietly let slip how much its soon-to-launch HYLAS1 broadband Satellite service will cost UK consumers. Speaking in reaction to yesterday's emergency budget announcement, Williams said, "Avanti can supply 8Mbps to anyone in the UK for £25 per month later this year when the HYLAS 1 satellite launches".

The price point is highly competitive and would give Eutelsat's 3.6Mbps service (e.g. Tariam UK) for £25-£35 per month (2.4GB usage allowance) a serious run for its money; of course Eutelsat isn't standing still and has a new 10Mbps satellite of its own to launch before the end of this year (here). On the other hand £25 is considerably less than the £15 price point that Avanti first hinted at a year ago.


The new generation of Satellite technology might certainly be able to deliver a good speed into rural areas but it's flexibility remains in serious doubt. There's not much point in having a fast rural connection if your usage allowance is so meagre that streaming more than a few BBC iPlayer shows could incur massive additional costs or poor performance.

High latency, which makes fast paced multiplayer games unplayable, is another problem that Satellite cannot address. True VPN connections and VoIP are also known to suffer, although Satellite has improved on some of these areas. Similarly analysts at Point Topic believe that the proposed BBC Licence fee cash will have a positive impact on deploying fibre optic broadband services into rural areas, provided it is used correctly and alongside other measures like opening up access into cable ducts.