Satellite Broadband Firm Avanti UK Make Ex-OneWeb Man CTO

Satellite operator Avanti Communications, which is based in the UK and runs the HYLAS network of five large communication satellites in high earth orbit (35,792km) for rural broadband and backhaul delivery, has appointed former OneWeb man Vikas Grover to be its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

OneWeb’s new constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based broadband satellites are a potentially significant, if as yet unproven, threat to established GEO platforms like those operated by Avanti (the same goes for other LEO networks, like those from SpaceX / Starlink etc.). Suffice to say that the decision to appoint OneWeb’s former Chief Information Officer (CIO) seems like a tactically sensible move.

Before OneWeb, Vikas was also the CIO and EVP of Technology Planning at Vodafone India. Vikas is also said to bring a rich cross-industry experience from his stint at KPMG (Atos) and will succeed Scott Richardson in the CTO role, who will be leaving the company.

Kyle Whitehill, Avanti CEO, said:

“I am delighted to welcome Vikas to Avanti. Vikas is an accomplished Leader in the Telecoms field with a background including Mobile and Satellite organisations. He is also a highly regarded people leader and I have no doubt he will make an excellent addition to Avanti and our Executive Committee.

I would also like to recognise Scott Richardson’s contribution to Avanti over his 15 years tenure, we wish him the very best for the future.”

In the past we’d usually be able to list a number of Satellite ISPs that were offering services to UK homes via Avanti’s HYLAS fleet, although these days many of those have swapped to Eutelsat or stopped operating. Still, we do believe that Freedomsat (Bentley Walker) continue to offer such packages, but with limited usage allowances, high prices, slow latency and average speeds of 15Mbps.. it could be better.