back to article UK to test Starlink satellite broadband for those hard to reach areas

The UK government is the latest to test out the Starlink satellite broadband service amid efforts to connect homes and businesses in poorly served areas of the country. A trial was officially launched this week by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to examine how satellite broadband could be used to …

  1. iron

    I hope this trial takes into acocunt that Starlink's service may suddenly double in price when you need it most.

    Plus the boss might call you a pedo guy.

    1. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

      That was exactly what I was going to write...!

    2. xyz Silver badge

      Err... They cut my monthly charge by 30 euros a month a few months back. I didn't even ask! I've nothing but praise for the service.

    3. NeilPost Silver badge

      According to the (dubious) decision in the NYC court/defamation trial …Musk is a Pedo guy himself.

  2. John Robson Silver badge

    And yet here

    we had fibre installed a few months ago, so now some other company is digging up the pavements to install a different set of fibre.

    Once there is fibre available... go and lay more somewhere else...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And yet here

      We had the whole street (~300m) tarmacked just a couple of years ago... it was immediately dug up to add speed humps... then Virgin dug a trench the whole length to add their fibre... then Thames Water laid a new water main... now another fibre company is currently just a few streets away and approaching fast

      1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

        Re: And yet here

        Well, anyone who's ever worked with fibre knows that it attracts construction equipment.

    2. Oglethorpe

      Re: And yet here

      I want other fibre companies to come and save me from Virgin. It's paying them a fortune (more than doubled since I signed up 6 years ago) or tens of megabits over copper.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And yet here

        a few years ago, one of the NHS Trusts were tendering for fibre access to its sites... Virgin were strictly excluded

      2. John Robson Silver badge

        Re: And yet here

        But Virgin aren't doing fibre... no problem with fibre being laid where it isn't.

  3. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
    Trollface

    will it work...

    in London?

  4. Carl W

    What happened to OneWeb, which was bailed out by the UK Government? Most of their satellites have been launched.

    1. xyz Silver badge

      I think they're stil trying to nail a gps thingy into it.

  5. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

    The trouble is that the Elongated Muskrat is totally unstable and unreliable. He is just as likely to cut off the service citing "ideological differences between the way the UK is run and the way he would run it if he was emperor of the UK" as to randomly drop the speed on purpose on a whim, or double the price "to annoy us".

    1. Claverhouse

      Maybe an impressed Johnson declared "This is a man I can do business with."

  6. Evilgoat76

    Why?

    We know it works, this is spaffing money for the sake of it

  7. TS15

    Formal testing is surely a bit redundant at this point?

    Genuinely don't see why this is creating such headlines. Starlink is (now) a proven way of accessing high speed internet more or less anywhere that falls within their global coverage and is relied on by 1000's of customers worldwide.

    It's simple to setup, largely consisting of positioning the dish/receiver somewhere with a clear view of the sky and plugging things in. Instant high speed connectivity.

    It's usually much quicker than 4G or older FTTC broadband and unless you can get proper fibre, which of course is better, will indeed provide high speed connectivity without needing to run cables.

    Good way to burn cash I suppose.

    As for selecting Starlink over OneWeb etc, suppose that's probably got a lot to do with Starlink being commercially available off the shelf - and available to buy and use right now.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Formal testing is surely a bit redundant at this point?

      As for why Starlink, I expect someone looked at the available uplink and downlink speeds for both.

      And selected the one that was capable of meeting current definitions of "broadband".

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OneWeb

    quietly taken behind the shed... no shots heard. Cause of death: severe malnutrition. And what's 400m after all, eh? Oh, I see, one of them brexit 300m for hospital per week... Well, never mind, move on, nothing to see here.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wasdale Head mountain rescue

    Hill rescue, surely?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just the facts?

    It's a shame El Reg decided to go for a cheap shot at OneWeb rather than actually look into the issue and answer the question.

    If they had bothered, they would have found that OneWeb still have to put more satellites up (they lost their launch slots and a bunch of satellites when the Russia-Ukraine conflict kicked off - Russia refused to launch them and also refused to return the satellites that had already been sent to the launch site).

    Moreover OneWeb never said they would provide a consumer service (not at first, anyway) - their service is designed to be wholesale. Think a mobile phone operator who wants to put a base station out in the boonies but can't trench the fibre to get to it, or a shipping company wanting to provide connectivity to their fleet.

  11. Snowy Silver badge
    Coat

    No mention of 5G

    Given that they want to cover the country in it why not just speed up the roll of of 5G in the not spots?

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: No mention of 5G

      Just been reading an article on the BBC about 5G. It seems that in most cases, it's only 5G between the phone and the mast. After that, it's 4G. The backhaul has to be upgraded too, and so far, no one is doing that. The only real improvement over 4G is if you are really quite close to a 5G mast. It appears, shock! horror!, that the marketing wonks have been over-promising the current capabilities, ie it's a 10 year roll-out that's only three years on and, apparently, only about 10% of the population actually own 5G capable phones. It may well, likely will, be a wonderful system when it's all rolled out in 20-30 years of the 10 year roll out plan, but we're still a long way from that. (Delays already included due to having to pull Huawei kit out of the networks)

  12. NeilPost Silver badge

    BoJo Lies

    “The government also said it has now signed a £108 million ($131 million) contract with Northern Ireland-based provider Fibrus to connect up to 60,000 rural homes and businesses in Cumbria in northwest England that might otherwise have missed out on upgrades to install high-speed broadband services.”

    B-b-but how could anywhere be ‘missed out’.

    BoJo *everywhere* would get fibre broadband by 2025.

    Not a liar is he ??

    https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2019/07/17/boris_johnsons_promise_of_fullfibre_by_2025_is_pie_in_the_sky/

  13. Mr. V. Meldrew

    Lucky Ruralists!

    Here in the shadow of Beetham Tower a small community of Miles Platting just a (large) stones throw from the centre of Manchester (UK) await for speed (not that sort) - here in my humble abode we (as in my pussy) receive the mouth watering 10 meg download and 1 meg upload. No FTTC at the cab and 1.4Km from Collyhurst exchange. No cable either.

    So if your getting better speeds, stop moaning and be fucking thankful.

  14. zeptepi

    Roaming again

    Oh no, not notspots again ...

    What happened to the UKGovt. negotiations to force mobile service providers to allow roaming in rural areas, as all our phones can do if we go to Europe?

    A business solution that would obviate using satellite except to sites with truly zero cover?

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