My wife’s parents live out in the middle of nowhere in Hampshire.

When you put their phone number into the BT broadband speed checker, the system does the equivalent of burst out laughing, arms crossed, shaking its head.

It estimates a speed of between 0.25mb and 1mb.

This, then, is why when I go there, it’s rather difficult to do anything.

Email is fine, but everything else — Googling, Youtube, Skype, FaceTime, downloading stuff — it’s really, really slow.

So my wife has been doing some research. I’d mentioned ‘satellite broadband’ to her ages ago. She picked that memory up and went hunting. Yesterday she came across Tooway Broadband. It looks pretty user-friendly, it’s two-way, it’s reasonably priced and it’s highly tempting. Her parents are seriously considering purchasing it.

I did a bit of searching myself and there appears to be plenty of Tooway resellers. I liked the look of Tooway Direct.

I’ve been asked for an opinion. This is my issue. I don’t know what to say.

I know that when I last seriously looked at a satellite connection, hardly any services did two-way. I remember reading that they’re managed to solve the internet’s latency requirements with some smart caching/proxy management. I’ve never actually experienced it though.

I’d like to know whether it’s going to be faster than really rubbish broadband. And I’d like to know about the limitations. How does Skype perform? Can you watch a Youtube video without issue? How fast does it ‘feel’? Waiting a ‘moment’ but then experiencing super-fast delivery of stuff would be most certainly workable.

Have you tried any of these services? I’d very much appreciate your feedback!

If all goes to plan, the network will be up and running from next year, with all member countries guaranteeing the winning bidder will be able to run a service in their country using reserved spectrum.

I suspect the opportunity to run mobile TV services won’t be the carrot for would-be providers here: opening up mobile access and telemedicine in some of Europe’s most remote regions could be both worthy and profitable for network operators.

The satellite will let ICO provide services including mobile TV, navigation and emergency assistance service “to be known as ICO mim (mobile interactive media)” across the US, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

According to the Washington Post, the company reckons its mobile TV service will be different to others on the market because it will reach even the most remote parts of the US. Add in the two way communications the standard allows, and it looks like ICO has an interesting service on its hands. Don’t expect it to turn up on your mobile any time soon – the company is using a standard that hasn’t really been adopted yet.