BT Launch New Broadband Satellite Service, Satellite Broadband 500.

Literally aimed at rural businesses, BT have introduced a new broadband satellite service providing 500kps to areas where there there are currently no ADSL facilities. The service is carried on Intelsat’s IS-907 satellite and covers the entire UK – if it’s successful, BT has an option to take the service into Western Europe.

The product, Satellite Broadband 500, comes in two flavours – Plus and “Lite”. Lite is for single users with a need for web access, whilst Plus is for multiple users requiring LAN connectivity.

The service will be available from BT Retail, but will also be offered wholesale for other ISPs and operators to resell. Subscription charges are competitive, starting at UK£46.99 (€75) per user for Lite and UK£85.99 (€129) for Plus. However, equipment prices start at UK£699 (€1048), and standard installation is UK£250 (€375). Subscriptions come with a dedicated BT support network.

Jonathan Wing, Head of Satellite Broadband at BT Broadcast Services, said in a statement: “There is a clear and demonstrated need for businesses, ISPs and others in the UK to have high-quality, high-speed, satellite broadband connections. Satellite broadband enables businesses and ISPs to be effective and competitive, wherever their offices are located.”

BT

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people. Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon. At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC. After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video. These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?