UK ISP Europasat Moots Future 50Mbps Satellite Broadband Packages

Oxfordshire-based ISP EuropaSat, which currently offers a mix of satellite broadband services from operators like Eutelsat (Tooway), Avanti (HYLAS) and SES (Astra), has said that a new range of 30Mbps packages will go live this summer and should be followed by a 50Mbps service at the end of next year.

The launch of a 30Mbps download package was predictable, not least because some of the Government’s Market Testing Pilots (MTP) for their future Phase 3 Broadband Delivery UK programme are already testing just such a solution across several remote rural parts of the United Kingdom (here).

At present the best that most domestic packages can offer is around 22Mbps, but further down the road a new generation of Satellites are expected to be introduced and those will have significantly more capacity, which should push speeds up to the 50Mbps area and make “unlimited” packages more sustainable.

Simon Clifton, CTO of Europasat, said (Via Satellite):

“It means we can make our products more and more interesting to the consumer. Whereas now, at the moment, we are offering consumer services that are peak speeds of Mbps. We are just about to go live with 30Mbps in the summer and, within 18 months, we see ourselves offering something in the region of 50Mbps.

We see data allowances going up significantly; we see a greater use of unlimited accounts, which is certainly in the U.K. a key driver of sales, and therefore the whole appeal of the product changes.”

Both European and UK Governments have over the past few months signalled a greater acceptance of Satellite as a solution that can help to connect some of the remotest areas and naturally Europasat, which has around 11,000 customers in 32 countries and hopes to reach 100,000 by the end of 2016 (out of 20 million potential customers), will be eager to secure a slice of any funding.

As part of this drive Europasat has already raised around £5.4 million, which includes being listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and this will help them gobble up a few of their competitors in order to grow and expand their presence into new markets. It should be noted that Cleeve Capital has acquired the company itself, which also goes by the name Satellite Solutions Worldwide (SSW).

However Satellite solutions still have a long way to go before they’re able to win over consumers on a truly significant scale. Past services were terrible and the latest generation have improved matters, although some big problems remain (here) and a few issues like the age old bugbear of exceptionally high latency may never be resolved (except perhaps through expensive DSL + 4G + Satellite aggregation). Customer service quality has also been a weak area for some.

In related news Eutelsat has announced that the UK will play a big role in building its new 3.5 tonne and £180m software-driven Quantum satellite. Apparently “it will be the first universal satellite to repeatedly adjust to business requirements and to be able to operate in any geographic region in the world,” said the firm (here). Details are currently in short supply.