A multi-national group of satellite and telecom veterans from the US, UK and mainland Europe have launched a challenger satellite broadband service Xtendnet for underserved businesses and consumers in Europe. The UK service is to be officially launched at trade show Connected Britain as the start-up targets mobile network operators, internet service providers and a significant percentage of the population that fixed lines cannot reach.
The service is connected to Arabsat’s BADR-7 high-throughput satellite and based on Forsway’s Xtend system. XtndNet promises users 50 Mb download speeds. The XtndNet service is available now in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and will expand to Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltics and Africa in 2023.
According to UK market regulator Ofcom there are at least 100,000 under- connected locations in the British isles, with under three Mbps and no other options for an affordable, fast and reliable broadband connection. Many say this could be a very low estimate, as homes in urban areas are underserved by Britain’s two main broadband providers. There is a widespread suspicion that the number of town dwellers who live too far from a BT exchange is an unreported story. The alternative broadband supplier is one of the most complained about service providers in Britain.
There are more than 100,000 households throughout the UK without an adequate broadband connection, according to Travis Mooney, CEO at XtndNet. “Those people are left behind as everything from government services to grocery shopping and television now rely on broadband connectivity,” said Mooney, who hinted that a resolution is finally at hand. “Our service uses a satellite download to immediately remedy this challenge for users throughout the UK and Ireland; simply point a dish, install a router and we can provide almost anyone an immediate upgrade, bridging the digital divide,” said Mooney.
The success of Xtndnet hinges on its ability to create a sales channel to fulfil the latent demand. “We are excited to show easy it can be for ISPs to extend their service offering to rural, underserved areas – with no investment required,” said Mooney.
Xtendnet is offering ‘zero-Capex access’ platform, available immediately and it will back its channel with marketing, technical and operational support to launch their local services. XtndNet provides individual wholesale satellite broadband internet access services to resellers, such as DSL providers, which can be white labelled.
BADR-7, also known as Arabsat-6B, was produced by Airbus Defence and Space-led consortium EADS Astrium, with Thales Alenia Space designing and building the spacecraft’s communications payload. The satellite was the 6th satellite within the Arabsat fleet and its 15 year life expectancy comes to an end in 2030. It operates at the orbital position of 26 degrees East. The satellite uses several gateway locations, which are all based in Europe. The Gateways bridge terrestrial broadband services with the satellite via ground stations using Ka (18-40 Ghz spectrum) and Ku band (of 12-18 Ghz).
Source: https://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/xtendnet-to-offer-satellite-broadband-for-uk-and-europe/
