Telecommunications news website Light Reading has reported that Ofcom has approved Elon Musk's Starlink broadband satellite network for a licence to install user terminals in Britain

Starlink, which consists of a Wi-Fi router and a small satellite dish, will focus on rural areas currently deprived of fibre broadband, where in the UK it will compete with Government-backed satellite service OneWeb, which was rescued after filing for bankruptcy last March.

Costs will run to £439 for the equipment and £89 a month for the service, with the trial's first invitation emails going out last week.

The article notes that rural broadband has ‘long been a pain point’ in the UK, with much of rural Britain still receiving connectivity through the telephone lines, which drives the UK down to 47th place in the world for average speeds.

Five per cent of UK homes don't have access to download speeds of at least 30 megabits per second, with the slowest street in the UK (which was in Weybridge in Surrey) having an average speed of just 0.12 Mbit/s.

Full article:

Light Reading - Starlink launches satellite Internet in rural UK