As things stand, the accepted technology being rolled out for internet consumers is connection through fibre-optic cables placed underground or alongside existing electrical and utility lines. The plan is that this infrastructure should serve us for around 35 years. And though it’s more expensive to provide new routes for fibre in rural or isolated areas, and so some places may use a wireless system will supplement fibre.

But fibre isn’t the only technology out there. The global space industry has been developing a new way of achieving the same goal without using fibre. Smaller, lighter satellites developed thanks to miniaturised electronics in low-earth-orbit (LEO) are attracting the attention of private companies such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX which are developing rockets to take these small satellites into orbit somewhere between 350km to 1,000km high.

With the possibility of putting but tens of small satellites on a single rocket, the commercial opportunities of space telecoms become significantly more viable. High speed broadband could be made available to isolated areas the world over – and the same satellites that provide it to, for example, Africa, could also be providing it to the UK. A bit like the cloud services we use through servers all over the world.

It seems that space will have a commercial purpose sooner rather than later.

In 2015, less than 10 internet broadband satellites were launched and each one needed its own rocket. They were in high orbits and their round-trip time (latency) was up to one second.

Musk’s SpaceX LEO satellites have latencies that are up to ten times smaller, Amazon aims to launch 3,236 satellites and OneWeb has a target of 2,000 – all with the aim of bringing high-speed internet.

So, whilst we are spending time money on fibre optic cabling for broadband provision in the near future, the development of satellite broadband may be inevitable. Hopefully, there’s room for both.