 | |
| Company type | Public Company |
|---|---|
| LSE: BBB | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Headquarters | Bicester, England, UK |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Andrew Walwyn (CEO) |
| Products | Satellite, wireless and 4G Broadband |
Number of employees | 270 (2019) |
| Website | www |
Bigblu Broadband, formerly Satellite Solutions Worldwide Group plc, is a UK-based provider of broadband services to rural homes and businesses across Europe.
Bigblu was founded in November 2008 by Andrew Walwyn, Simon Clifton, Selwyn Petterson, and Tom Wheeler as Satellite Solutions Worldwide Group. [1] [2] [3] The company offers satellite internet and superfast broadband to rural homes and businesses in 10 countries across Europe, including the UK. [4]
Initially, the company focused on satellite broadband, becoming one of the largest satellite broadband ISPs worldwide. It later diversified and began offering alternative broadband using both satellite and ultra-fast fixed wireless. The business was listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) AIM market in May 2015. At this time it had approximately 10,000 customers, which has since grown through a mixture of organic and inorganic growth (through acquisitions) to approximately 120,000 customers. In 2018 it had revenues of £55 million (up 8%), but recorded a pre-tax loss of £9.5 million. [5]
The company has partnerships with Eutelsat and NBN SkyMuster.
Bigblu Broadband Plc trades as bigblu and offers satellite broadband via the Tooway satellite platform to 120,000 customers across a number of different markets:
BBB has grown through acquisition, acquiring 20 companies across 9 countries. It sold off 11,000 Australian customers it gained from the SkyMesh acquisition to Superloop for A$1.5m (US$1.1m) [12]
In 2019 the company apologised for a spate of billing and debt collection problems combined with unresponsive customer service. [13]
A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 16 Mbit/s. VSATs access satellites in geosynchronous orbit or geostationary orbit to relay data from small remote Earth stations (terminals) to other terminals or master Earth station "hubs".
Sky UK Limited, doing business as Sky is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Sky Group and, from 2018 onwards, part of Comcast. It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster, with 12.7 million customers as of the end of 2019 for its digital satellite TV platform. Sky's flagship products are Sky Q and the internet-based Sky Glass, and its flagship channels are Sky Showcase, Sky Max, and Sky Atlantic.
Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites; if it can sustain high speeds, it is termed satellite broadband. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual users through geostationary satellites that can offer relatively high data speeds, with newer satellites using the Ku band to achieve downstream data speeds up to 506 Mbit/s. In addition, new satellite internet constellations are being developed in low-earth orbit to enable low-latency internet access from space.
Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues.
Plusnet plc is a British triple play internet service provider (ISP) providing broadband, landline and mobile services. The company was founded in 1997 in Sheffield, England, and became a public limited company (plc) in July 2004 when it was floated on the Alternative Investment Market. On 30 January 2007, Plusnet was acquired by BT Group, but it continues to operate as a separate business. By December 2013, it had over 750,000 customers across the UK.
SES S.A., trading as SES is a Luxembourgish satellite telecommunications network provider supplying video and data connectivity worldwide to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments and institutions.
Be Unlimited was an Internet service provider in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2014. Initially founded as an independent company by Boris Ivanovic and Dana Tobak in 2005, it was bought by Spanish group Telefónica Europe in 2006 before being sold on to BSkyB in March 2013 in an agreement which saw BSkyB buy the fixed telephone line and broadband business of Telefónica Europe which at the time traded under the O2 and BE brands. The deal saw BSkyB agree to pay £180 million initially, followed by a further £20 million after all customers had been transferred to Sky's existing business. The sale was subject to regulatory approval in April 2013, and was subsequently approved by the Office of Fair Trading on 16 May 2013.
Virgin Media is a telecommunications company from England, founded in 2007, which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica.
Viasat is an American communications company based in Carlsbad, California, with additional operations across the United States and worldwide. Viasat is a provider of high-speed satellite broadband services and secure networking systems covering military and commercial markets.
Openreach Limited is a company wholly owned by BT Group plc, that maintains the telephone cables, ducts, cabinets and exchanges that connect nearly all homes and businesses in the United Kingdom to various national broadband and telephone networks. It was established in 2006 following an agreement between BT and the UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom, to implement certain undertakings, pursuant to the Enterprise Act 2002, to ensure that rival telecom operators have equality of access to BT's local network.
Sky Broadband is the consumer internet service offered by Sky UK in the United Kingdom.
Hughes Network Systems, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar. It is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland and provides satellite internet service. HughesNet has over a million subscribers in the Americas in late 2023, down from 1.4 million in early 2022.
Sky Ireland Limited is a subsidiary of Comcast-owned Sky UK and supplies television, internet and telephony services in Ireland.
The United Kingdom has been involved with the Internet throughout its origins and development. The telecommunications infrastructure in the United Kingdom provides Internet access to homes and businesses mainly through fibre, cable, mobile and fixed wireless networks, with the UK's 140-year-old copper network, maintained by Openreach, set to be withdrawn by December 2025.
Host Europe Group was an American-owned, European-located website hosting, email and domain name registrar company headquartered Hayes, West London. Founded as GX Networks in 1997, the company was renamed Pipex Communications plc following its takeover of Pipex in 2003. It reverted to the GX Networks name following its sale of Pipex in 2008 before being renamed Host Europe Group in 2009. It was acquired by American hosting company GoDaddy in 2017, and as of 2019 its name was in the process of being phased out.
SES Broadband is a two-way satellite broadband Internet service available across Europe, which launched in March 2007, and uses the Astra series of geostationary satellites.
Tooway is a satellite broadband Internet service available across Europe. The first version of the service was launched in 2007 via two Eutelsat geostationary satellites, Hot Bird 6 and Eurobird 3, respectively at the 13° and 33° East orbital positions.
KA-SAT is a high-throughput geostationary telecommunications satellite owned by Viasat. The satellite provides bidirectional broadband Internet access services across Europe and a small area of the Middle East, and additionally the Saorsat TV service to Ireland. It is positioned at 9°E, joining the Eurobird 9A Ku band satellite. KA-SAT was manufactured by EADS Astrium, based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, with a total weight of 6 tons. It was launched by Proton in December 2010. The satellite is named after the Ka band frequency, which is used on the spacecraft.
Andrews & Arnold Ltd is an Internet service provider based in Bracknell, England. The company was founded in 1997 and launched in 1998, serving businesses and "technical" home users.
SkyMesh is an Australian telecommunications carrier and ISP owned by Bigblu Broadband that provides NBN, Wireless and Satellite services, as well as legacy IPSTAR Satellite services. SkyMesh is headquartered in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.