I am a business broadband user living in a rural area: I currently have a BT Fixed Line ADSL service. Because I live so far from the nearest exchange (3 miles), I get a maximum speed of 1.2mpbs download on the BT line - which is not quite enough to have a hassle-free service.

I was recommended Avonline by an IT consultant as good for remote rural users. I talked to Avonline, explaining I wanted to run a Cloud desktop and an VOIP phone for my home office. No problem, they said, you will get minimum 13mbps download - more than enough to do both.

I shelled out in the region of £700 for the satellite dish, satellite stand and installation: only to find:

* the very high latency of the service made working on a cloud desktop impossible;

* the connection was anyway unstable, and the cloud desktop kept dropping out;

* the VOIP phone was unable to function: the technical team were unable to resolve this;

* streaming was also very poor - so we couldn't even use it for domestic use.

Weirdly, my BT ADSL line gave a much preferable user experience, at only 1.2mbps - one tenth of what Avonline 'guaranteed'.

Having tried it for a few more weeks, to no avail, I called them up to cancel, and was asked to send an e-mail. I did so on 5 June. No response. I sent another e-mail. No response. I called again. Finally got a response. Apparently I was just outside the cancellation period. I asked them to buy back the satellite equipment, which they said they would do.

In the meantime, invoices kept arriving for July. etc etc etc. I am still waiting for any call about the buy back, £900 in the hole of a service that never worked as advertised.

So, whatever you do, I would advise against this service unless you have absolutely no other broadband options; because clearly even a very limited fixed line service is a lot better than a satellite service.