Broadband News
News, views and analysis
Satellite broadband delay for Europe
14 Jul 2010 | 09.30 Europe/London
The head to head battle between Eutelsat and Avanti Communications to provide Europeans with faster satellite broadband services may have to wait until the New Year.
Both providers were hoping to be offering new services before the end of this year but that now looks unlikely as Avanti has warned that its proposed September launch has been put back by roughly six weeks, due to an issue with launch pad availability.
Eutelsat’s KA-SAT is still expected to be launched and potentially ready to offer Europeans up to 10Mbp/s connections before the end of the year. Avanti is aiming to offer 8Mbp/s and has confirmed it had lined up a company to offer UK broadband users combined television, phone and broadband packages.
Pricing details for the two rivals’ new services are not yet clear, although Avanti has suggested its 8Mb service will be priced at roughly £25 per month. This is set to compete with Eutelsat’s existing Tooway satellite service which offers a 3.6Mb service for £33 in the UK.
More detailed announcements are likely to be made before the end of the year and those in rural areas looking to receive broadband will no doubt be keeping a keen eye on the upfront hardware costs and any monthly data limits placed on connections.
Current Tooway connections, for example, can come with an upfront cost of £399 for hardware and can attract a 2.4Gb per month data limit.
Both providers were hoping to be offering new services before the end of this year but that now looks unlikely as Avanti has warned that its proposed September launch has been put back by roughly six weeks, due to an issue with launch pad availability.
Eutelsat’s KA-SAT is still expected to be launched and potentially ready to offer Europeans up to 10Mbp/s connections before the end of the year. Avanti is aiming to offer 8Mbp/s and has confirmed it had lined up a company to offer UK broadband users combined television, phone and broadband packages.
Pricing details for the two rivals’ new services are not yet clear, although Avanti has suggested its 8Mb service will be priced at roughly £25 per month. This is set to compete with Eutelsat’s existing Tooway satellite service which offers a 3.6Mb service for £33 in the UK.
More detailed announcements are likely to be made before the end of the year and those in rural areas looking to receive broadband will no doubt be keeping a keen eye on the upfront hardware costs and any monthly data limits placed on connections.
Current Tooway connections, for example, can come with an upfront cost of £399 for hardware and can attract a 2.4Gb per month data limit.