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.


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.