NEW SATELLITE BROADBAND AGREEMENT IS BOOST FOR HOTELS AND PUB SECTORS

Avonline Broadband, the UK's largest satellite broadband provider, has signed an agreement with UK operator Avanti that will strengthen its portfolio of satellite based broadband solutions forthe coastal and rural hotel and leisure industry.

Many tourism and leisure businesses are held back because poor broadband download speeds restrict their location's attraction and limit the online marketing activities that the business can carry out.

The new agreement to provide Avanti's latest satellite broadband technology alongside its existing Enterprise business solutions from Eutelsat means the company can now provide business services tailored for a range of different leisure businesses. The latest generation of satellite technology can be used for the primary broadband connection through to cloud services, emergency recovery, redundancy or overnight offsite backup of data.

Mark Wynn, managing director of Avonline Broadband, said: "Tech-savvy visitors expect to make bookings online and then stay connected during their trip. But for many hotels and pubs, traditional copper cable or fibre optic broadband providers are simply unable or unwilling to deliver adequate speeds in the near future.

"The new packages we are introducing overcome that obstacle with a choice of services and data options delivered via satellite anywhere in the UK, no matter how remote.

"Prices have never been better either. For instance, a 50GB data per month package costs £59.95 per month and a 150GB service costs £149.95 per month - both with unlimited overnight data usage."

Avonline's satellite solutions can be configured for VPN and enhanced VoIP and Video-conferencing, as well as options with high quality upload speeds up to 6Mbps where required.A system can be installed at any business or home typically within a week of order.

Industry standard Wi-Fi routers are used to provide Wi-Fi internet access to various parts of the building.

A key attraction of satellite broadband is its ability to immediately reach any part of the UK,without infrastructure investment. Businesses in rural areas are increasingly suffering from slower internet speeds because of the limited availability of fast or reliable broadband services. In addition, broadband speeds over ADSL, the technology that uses the copper wire telephone network, are generally slower in rural areas because of the longer distances to the telephone exchange.

Mark Wynn said: "We have a fast-growing number of business customers who rely on satellite broadband for its ability to provide fast download speeds of up to 20Mbps in remote and rural areas. For some it is their main business broadband connection, while others rely on it for cloud service connection, overnight offsite back-up, disaster recovery and redundancy or temporary installations."

Avonline has introduced a Fibre Guarantee which promises that, if and when fibre does become available at a customer's premises, if Avonline can provide a fibre alternative it will end the satellite contract and connect the customer to the new fibre service.

Under its new agreement with Avanti, customers also benefit from an Avonline-specific download service promise. On a rolling 30 day measure, Avonline will deliver an average download speed of at least 9Mbps measured across its total Avanti customer base.

"No-one else in the UK can give such a specific service commitment and so many different options to businesses," said Mark Wynn.

ENDS

Note to editors:

For further information and interviews:

Mark Wynn, Managing Director, Avonline Broadband, tel 07970 008001

Email: mark.wynn@avonline.co.uk

Further images are available from:

Ken Harrison, HPR Marketing, tel 07801 649045. Email kharrison@hprmarketing.co.uk

Mark Wynn, managing director, Avonline Broadband

Avonline Broadband has signed an agreement with UK-based satellite operator Avanti, which operates the latest-technology Hylas 2 satellite (pictured)