Hylas 1 satellite to provide upto 10-Mbit broadband coverage in Europe

Businesses in the UK could benefit from a new satellite to be launched on Friday that is designed to provide broadband coverage of at least 2Mbit/s across Europe.

Hylas 1, the first of the two satellites to be launched by broadband provider Avanti will become operational in the coming year, while the company's second launch would be targeted to serve the Middle East and Africa regions.

According to Avanti chief executive, David Williams, the Hylas 1 uses the Ka band, that operates at a higher frequency of 20 GHz than the 10 GHz-11GHz Ku band traditionally used by TV satellites.

He added that higher frequency operations allowed for packing in more data to get faster broadband services. He said it was unlocking high-speed broadband at low prices from space.

The service providers who will buy the service would use the facility to provide broadband to consumers and businesses in areas where there are currently gaps in provision.

According to Williams the satellite can theoretically provide broadband speeds of up to 200Mbit/s, and that consumers were likely to be offered services from 2Mbit/s to 10Mbit/s and businesses would get slightly higher speeds.