Research firm Point Topic has stated that satellite broadband is expected to help European Union to meet its Digital Agenda target, which aims to provide 2mbps of broadband speed to every citizen and business by the end of 2013.
The report also revealed that more than 99% of the population of the EU can get ten times the expected speed through space based systems.
Point Topic CEO Oliver Johnson said: "Now that twenty megabit bandwidths are commonly on offer and some tariffs offer customers unlimited data the case for satellite broadband has, in our view, reached a tipping point."
According to the research firm, the broadband market is not moving as rapidly as it should as there are several citizens who still do not have any knowledge about satellite.
The report added that the launch of Ka satellites has helped increase in satellite subscribers with reduction in cost and improvement in bandwidth, though the satellite subscribers still constitute about half of a per cent of the overall broadband market.
Satellite operators have been dealing with several issues that had impact on previous deployments and are working on offering users with attractive packages
The report also revealed that FCC satellite in the US has promised for offering 130% more bandwidth of what users pay for, as a minimum in North America, while Ofcom’s study citing the UK regulator reveals that users ranked satellite as the best browsing experience in a blind test.
"There remains the latency issue," Johnson added. "It just takes time for your data to make the journey to space and back.
"O3b, backed by Google amongst others, actually puts their satellites in a lower orbit to reduce the time lags. This isn’t something we’re likely to see in Europe this decade though."
Point Topic also suggests that Ka band satellite offers a practical alternative for users seeking internet access.
Europe reportedly has more than 20 million people with no access to fixed broadband and about 200 million with no superfast broadband connectivity.
"Satellite subscription costs are affordable for most, the bandwidth and data caps have improved significantly in the last ten years and you can be up and running comparatively quickly," Johnson said.
"In fact satellite isn’t just for those hard to reach areas anymore it’s turning into a real competitor for bandwidth provision in a number of situations"
