Posted: 19th May, 2009 By: MarkJ
Satellite operator
Tariam UK has launched a new website with online ordering and updated its existing 'domestic'
Homenet product to offer an up to 2Mbps (384Kbps upload) two-way (download and upload) service from £39.99 per month. The package comes with a meagre 1.2GB monthly usage allowance, while the hardware, delivery and installation fee will set you back a bank breaking £759.97 .inc VAT.
The service might seem familiar because it's based on Eutelsat's Tooway product, which was launched at the end of last month (
original news). Tooway was pitched, originally at £29.99 +vat per month, as a potentially affordable solution to help solve the UK's Digital Divide and need for a universal minimum UK broadband speed of 2Mbps.
Managing Director, Andrew Walwyn, said: “Tariam’s business has been built on the success of the previous two websites, but we started with a clean piece of paper and approached the new site from the perspective of the customer.
We wanted to bring in the latest online systems to put us at the forefront of the industry with regards to ordering and customer support and to allow our customers new and old to communicate in the most efficient way with us.
We also wanted new customers to be able to quickly and easily access the information they require, from wherever and whenever they hit the site. Often when customers come to us, speed of deployment as well as price is a key factor. With the new site and our new nationwide installation and support agreements in place, we can now deliver this very effectively”.
Sadly charging such a huge amount for the service rental and nearly £800 for all the other bits is unlikely to be seen as an affordable solution to solving the Digital Divide. It's good value for a satellite service but the age old problems of high costs, hefty usage restrictions and high latency (bad for multiplayer games etc.) continue to hamper the technology as a realistic mainstream solution.
Tariam itself was acquired by Satellite Solutions Worldwide (SSW) last year following a spate of problems (
related news), some of which saw customers that had paid hundreds of pounds being left for weeks without having received their hardware or a service.