Satellite broadband service rivals ground-based speeds.

The Exede broadband service has begun selling plans in the US, offering a next generation broadband service from it’s new satellite, ViaSat-1. The company claims download speeds of 12 megabits per second, and 3 Mb/s uploads - around as fast as most ground-based broadband.

The satellite is combined with traditional fibre-optic broadband on the ground, to enable coverage to most areas of the US. Of course the price is slightly higher - and the data-caps slightly lower - than most other offerings out there, but it’s still good to see the technology progressing.

The system uses the the breakthrough ViaSat-1 satellite that was launched in October 2011. ViaSat-1 has more capacity than the rest of the communications satellites over North America combined, and is designed to serve over a million subscribers.