With a Dish, Broadband Goes Rural

WITH A DISH, BROADBAND GOES RURAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ken Belson]
WildBlue and its chief rivals — Hughes Network Systems, which markets under the name HughesNet, and Spacenet, which sells the StarBand service — are filling one of the biggest gaps in the country’s digital infrastructure. Roughly 15 million households cannot get broadband from their phone or cable provider because the companies have been slow to expand their high-speed networks in areas where there are not enough customers to generate what they regard as an adequate profit. There are some drawbacks to the satellite approach that make it unlikely to be a serious rival to more common broadband options. WildBlue’s cheapest service costs $50 a month, about twice Verizon’s introductory offer, and the dish costs several hundred dollars. Heavy rain sometimes interrupts the signal and knocks out service, and small delays are common as signals beam to and from a satellite orbiting 24,000 miles above the earth. But alternative technologies, like wide-area wireless services and access over power lines, are still in their infancy. And demand for broadband in rural areas is as strong if not stronger than in suburbs and cities. Broadband is essential to distance-learning programs, health clinics that communicate with bigger hospitals and farmers who rely on the latest market and weather data. Second-home owners and resorts are potential customers, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/technology/14satellite.html
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