ADSL broadband accessability is on the increase in the UK, but it remains far from universal.  I think I've read that "the majority" of telephone exchanges (i.e. just over a half) are now enabled, but there's a  further requirement that you must be  within a certain distance of the exchange.  Thus it's still only a minority who can get the service.

If you're lucky enough to have cable TV, you're likely to be able to get broadband internet through your cable supplier - but just like the ADSL service, coverage is patchy and tends to be much better in urban rather than rural locations.

If you're looking for fast downloads (and that's what most people want - ADSL and cable are biased this way too), you mighht also wish to consider satellite download.  You dial in to your ISP through a regular analogue modem, but return traffic is routed via a satellite and you pick up your data with a satellite dish.  The Astra satellite is said to cover all of Europe, and it's not as cheap as ADSL or cable (you've still got the cost of the analogue line / connection for starters) it might be a good solution for some folks.  

I would love to hear of any experiences that anyone has of this, or feedback if anyone takes it further.  A supplier url: http://www.netsystems.com/eng

You may also be interested in this review of SatDrive from the ZDNet web site
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/review/19/1/2384.html

Quote:

VERDICT Are you stuck in the ADSL/cable wilderness? If you are, check out SatDrive’s £15 a month one-way satellite service. It may not suit everyone, but you can get great download speeds, plus a good range of free offline services.

Yes, that does look like another "possible" way to get increased bandwidth away from the ADSL / Cable modem areas.  Again, severley asymetric but it might do for some folks.

I've also just come across the Inmarasat Regional BGAN, which according to the new edition of the Internet magazine gives you up to 144kbyte access from anywhere in Europe and North Africa - but at a high price .... about £1000 for your satellite IP Modem, and then (they say) maybe £10 per Megabyte.  OK - that's so much money that I won't even post the URL  

"3G" mobile systems are coming along. I think "Three" are scheduled to launch theirs later this year, with O2, Orange, T Mobile and Vodafone looking at 2004 at the earliest  The theory
is that 3G can deliver 2Mbps stationary, dropping to 384kb or lower if a device is moving.  Not really my specialty - anyone here able to confirm these figures / give us more news?   It may turn out that the other devices talked about in this thread are going to have a very short life cycle.

There's a further link (to the BT Openworld satellite service at:
http://www.btopenworld.com/broadband/forwork/internet_access.html

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