The launch of a new satellite will bring a new but imperfect solution, says Matt Warman
The news that the Hylas satellite has finally launched should have thousands of rural dwellers dancing in the fields. It will open up the possibility of high-speed broadband to 350,000 Europeans, and will be the only option for many for years to come.
At a maximum of 10mbps, however, this is not technology on a par with the latest fibre optics from BT or Virgin. Avanti, the satellite’s owners, argue that most people don’t need 100mbps, and wouldn’t use it even if they had it. While that may be true for now, the fact remains that Hylas is supposed to last for more than a decade, by which time the landscape of broadband Britain may look rather different.
Indeed, what’s likely to happen, as the web becomes more crucial to every aspect of daily life, is that companies will start to change their minds about rural areas they had previously dismissed as hopelessly beyond economic viability.
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