Satellite Broadband UPDATE

According to Avanti Communications, the Ariane 5 rocket, carrying HYLAS 1, entered orbit precisely on schedule after a “perfect” launch at 18:39 GMT on 26^th November 2010.  The HYLAS spacecraft is designed to deliver dedicated broadband services to remote locations where it is currently not possible to get a fast internet connection. 

A signal from the satellite was picked up almost right away at an antenna sited in India. Controllers will now spend a few weeks positioning the spacecraft correctly in the sky and checking out onboard systems.  HYLAS 1 is the first superfast broadband satellite launched in Europe, Avanti’s second satellite is fully funded and will launch in 2012.

Following Avanti’s success on Friday, it seems that there is now a race to space as it was announced on Monday morning that the financing has been secured for one of the most ambitious commercial space projects of the decade.


O3b Networks, based in Jersey, has raised $1.2bn (£700m) for a series of satellites to support super-fast broadband connections to Africa and other emerging markets.  The spacecraft will act as backhaul, linking the traffic of local telecoms and internet service providers to the global fibre infrastructure.  The first platforms will be ready to go into orbit in the first half of 2013.

Delay for Broadband Britain

Labour gave 2012 as the deadline for Broadband Britain to be in place, giving the whole of the UK 2 Megabits per second. With that deadline fast approaching, the new Government has pushed it back to 2015 citing a lack of “sufficient funding” as the reason.

All seem to be in agreement that a universal service of 2 Mbps per second is the minimum required but BT has warned that it will cost billions to get fast broadband to every part of Britain.

Steve Robertson, chief executive of BT Openreach, believes that the goal can not be achieved without around £2bn in public funding.

The government wants the industry to be imaginative in solving that problem. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt believes that the previous administrations goal was unrealistic and had this to say a recent industry conference:

"I have looked at the provision the Government had made to achieve this by 2012. And I'm afraid that I am not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place.

"So, while we will keep working towards that date, we have set ourselves a more realistic target of achieving universal 2 Mbps access within the lifetime of this Parliament," he added.

Smallest County - Biggest Broadband

A tiny village in Oakham has raised £37,000 to offer 200 homes the super-fast broadband that neither BT nor Virgin could deliver.

Getting fast broadband to rural areas has recently been an issue for political debate and is back in the spotlight as the government shelves its funding plans. The residents of Lyddington had tried all the big suppliers and had been told that it was not economically viable to provide fast services to the village. In the end they decided they couldn’t wait and have set up their own Telecoms Company.

It is estimated that around 2.5 million homes in the UK cannot get broadband speeds of more than 2Mbps. Award winning Rutland Telecom now offer the residents of Lyddington speeds of up to 40Mbps (megabits per second). The scheme was a joint effort between villagers fed up with slow broadband speeds and a local ICT firm that was reselling BT's broadband.



The process was a slow one but Rutland Telecom, with the help of Ofcom, have had their very own fibre-optic cable put into a street cabinet in the village. After two years of persistence the network is up and running and already has 50 customers.

 

"For the first time in UK telecommunications history the telephone lines of customers are completely cut off from the local BT exchange," said Rutland Telecom director Mark Melluish.

Rutland Telecom has been approached by 40 other rural community groups to see if a similar solution is possible in their area. It is on the verge of launching similar schemes in neighbouring Leicestershire and one in Wales.




Results by independent analyst Speedtest.Net demonstrate Rutland Telecom broadband speeds are over 3x faster than all other ISPs.