BT working with Oneweb to give UK satellite broadband

BT has signed a deal with satellite operator Oneweb to explore how they can bring broadband to remote parts of the UK that won’t be covered by the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme.

They will also examine whether satellites can link up to new mobile masts in order to improve phone signals.

Oneweb, part-owned by the Government, has over 250 satellites in a low-earth orbit, and says it will start providing services by November. As well as the UK, these will cover Alaska, Canada, northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, and the Arctic seas.

Long term, it plans to run a system of 648 satellites in order to provide global coverage by around the end of 2022. It will rival Starlink, owned by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, which has launched more than 1,800 satellites and began providing broadband to UK customers in January.

Satellite broadband has the potential to cover wide areas, but it has always suffered from slow latency, which is the time it takes for a signal sent from a satellite to reach a dish on Earth. This can lead to a stuttering connection, particularly when streaming and gaming.

However, Starlink’s satellites orbit at an altitude of 340 miles, which is low enough to sharply cut the latency. Its customers report speeds of around 80Mbps – a target that Oneweb will expect to match when its rival service launches.

Meanwhile, Virgin Media is for the first time using the Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme ( www.snipca.com/38782) to extend their Fibre-to-thePremises (FTTP) network. Residents in the West Sussex villages of Bramber, Steyning and Upper Beeding have been invited to apply at www. virginmedia.com/gbvs.

The company, which has just merged with O2, didn’t say whether more areas will soon be covered.