As part of the deal, Avanti will be part of BT’s supply of wholesale consumer broadband services which will then be sold to consumers in the UK through a network of satellite resellers.
“We welcome this significant intervention by government to ensure that the Universal Service Commitment is met and we are pleased to serve the best interests of the UK consumer,” said David Williams, CEO of Avanti said.
Avanti will have the potential to provide satellite broadband to over 300,000 homes which are unable to access download speeds of over 2Mbps through terrestrial networks.
Under the UK government’s universal service commitment (USC), these households will be eligible for a £350 grant to subsidise the installation of satellite broadband.
Ed Vaizey, UK digital economy minister said: “Our rollout of superfast broadband has already reached an additional 3.5 million homes and businesses who would otherwise have missed out. We are making tremendous progress, but it’s a massive engineering project and won’t happen overnight. This scheme offers immediate assistance to those homes and businesses in the most remote areas with the slowest speeds and is all part of our transformation of the UK’s digital landscape.”
