That solution is Satellite Broadband. Once considered a poor choice by almost everyone – including us, we admit – due to its expensive setup, high bandwidth costs, bad latency and unreliable performance. However, the broadband terrain is changing quickly and for some people who have little other option, satellite is slowly becoming a more appealing option, if you can afford it.

Avanti is a UK based satellite broadband company that has been providing satellite access across Europe for years, but the company will soon be launching a brand new satellite which will reduce costs of the services while making them faster at the same time. The new satellite will be able to offer some impressive speeds and while it won’t totally reduce some of the problems of the service like the latency, it could well be an option for those excluded from traditional methods of broadband.

During an interview with Top 10 Broadband, a spokeman from Avanti commented although there’s a very high price for set up of the services this cost may be reduced when more and more people taking up the service. With initial setup currently suggest at around £400, Avanti pointed towards US satellite broadband provider Wild Blue who have been able to reduce their own costs thank to increased take up. Avanti will cover over double the amount of potential customers as Wild Blue, so we could see more sensible prices available soon.

Some customers in Scotland have also been able to take advantage of government subsidies to reduce the cost and the British government may well adopt a similar method when the full Digital Britain report is released this month.

Avanti also promise broadband caps of around 5GB a month, a similar amount of data allowance that you might find in a mobile broadband contract. Obviously this isn’t enough for heavy downloaders but if you live in a remote enough area to consider satellite the most important consideration is having a connection rather than a lot of download bandwidth.

Avanti haven’t announced proper initial prices of monthly costs for the service yet, but it’s clear the satellite broadband is finally taking off. If you can get any other type of cheap broadband service in your area it’ll probably be far cheaper and more reliable than the satellite option. If not, satellite might be something to consider, especially if Avanti make good on reducing installation charges when more people take up the service.

Avanti have recently been given funding from the European Space Agency to research ‘Hercules’, a satellite that would be capable of speeds of up to 50 Mbps.

Tooway Broadband – By Eutelsat

Eutelsat is launching its “Tooway” service in the UK this week. The service offers speeds of up to 2 Mbps and should cover the entire country. This is a similar speed and goal outlined in Lord Carters ‘Digital Britain’ report, although the government’s aims involve using fixed line and mobile broadband to achieve the goal.

The service uses an existing satellite right now, but the French firm aims to launch a new satellite in 2010 that will be able to offer speeds of up to 10 Mbps even to those in isolated rural areas. The new satellite with use the Ka band for its high speed transmission and cover all of Europe, from Ireland to Turkey.

The firm is aiming its service at those customers who have been left in the dark as far as broadband is concerned. Those in rural areas will be able to receive the service which includes an upload speed of 256 kbps.

Of course, there’s a reason that satellite broadband has never really caught on. One of the main problems is the latency involved in communicating with a satellite in orbit compared to an exchange down the road. Eutelsat say that VOIP and video services will not be affected by latency. It has admitted however that online games won’t work well with the service. However, if you’re considering satellite in the first place, chances are it’s your only option for high speed broadband.

Satellite Broadband Costs Compared With ADSL

The biggest problem with the service is the price. Eutelsat’s services costs £29.99 a month but there is a large initial payout. The hardware itself and the installation of the dish and receiver will cost around £400 and be performed by local satellite companies. This high initial cost could put many users off. In comparison, the standard connection charge for an ADSL connection ranges from free to a high of around £50.

Once installed however, the receiver will be ready to accept speeds of 10 Mbps when the service launches next year. The company will also be offering packaged phone and TV services to make the monthly pricing scheme more attractive.

Although satellite remains a last resort for many in terms of both speed and price, the service could be the first time many rural users see broadband internet speeds in their own homes.