With the recent launch of Ka-band satellites by Avanti’s & Eutelstat and their PR campaign about to leave the launch pad, do these events have the potential to change the consumer broadband market and help Government achieve their broadband targets.
Avanti argue that Ka-band provides higher capacity and lower end user pricing. However will it be successful in Wales, given the rural landscape, previous customer experience and industry scepticism about Satellite’s ability to deliver quality of service?
Although Avanti plans to upgrade its equipment to provide a faster more efficient service, the industry and customers who have witnessed & experienced poor service in the past will still take some convincing. As for businesses in Wales, satellite technology still has some work to do around reliable upload to the Internet, which is an area that has been highlighted as a key driver for businesses to change broadband supplier.
We have one of the new hylas1 avanti sats. It does 2meg down, 128k up, ping 938 milliseconds.
It is very large. I don’t know how it will stand the wind, but it was installed by excellent chap who was very efficient.
I don’t think it is the answer to rural access, but it is a very good, easily available stop gap.
The only real answer is fibre to the home, but until communities realise that and start to organise their own they will have to make do with what is available.
There is no way a satellite can be called ‘next generation access’. But hey, it works, and as long as you don’t let the kids on it you can stay within the data transfer limits. No iPlayer and all that stuff, and no uploading content unless you want it to take all night to upload a small video.