Satellites May Be Solution to UK’s Broadband Issue – Broadband News
The government “will have to look at satellite technology as a solution to making broadband available across the country, according to David McCourt, chief executive of Skyware Global. “As more people want access to data wherever they are in the world, and increasingly data such as video rather than just voice, the capabilities of the cable networks are under pressure,” he said.
According to McCourt, the installation of fibre optic cable would be too expensive and time-consuming to provide broadband in rural areas. He also said bottlenecks are appearing in the telecoms infrastructure as data rates grow.
McCourt noted that developing countries looking to digitize would choose the speed of satellite broadband over cable systems and this would drive the technology’s growth, too.
Satellite broadband speeds range from 2Mbit/s to 7Mbit/s, but new satellites being developed would offer speeds from 10Mbit/s.
“Currently there are around 865,000 satellite broadband customers worldwide, but the industry is expecting that to reach 10 to 15 million as the technology is made cheaper and demand grows,” he explained.
Northern Sky Research senior analyst, Patrick French, agreed saying broadband is helping meet the demand in developed economies. He also agreed that satellite broadband is an excellent technology for issues of rural divide and has done very well in government subsidy programs such as Australia. He did point out that satellite broadband subscriber patterns mirror population densities. “Satellite broadband is very effective at filling the still substantial number of broadband white spaces that are found in and around urban and suburban areas.”
At this time, there are around 1.2m satellite broadband customers worldwide. About 900,000 of these are in North America and about 150,000 in Europe. McCourt thinks this figure could grow to anywhere between 10 million and 15 million in the coming years.