Your Future: Never out of Touch - cont'd

No matter how remote …

Satellites are also helping space agencies tackle the digital divide, that barrier that separates rural areas from online technology centers because of a lack of broadband infrastructure.

To counter this, the European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a project that would use a combination of satellite receivers and wireless networks to outfit some of the most remote areas of Scotland and England with high-speed broadband capabilities.

The project, Broadband Access for Rural Regeneration with DVB-RCS (BAARD), is driven by commercial needs, ESA officials say. Businesses hoping to move into more rural locations are typically hampered by a lack of broadband infrastructure.

BAARD organizers began work in June and plan to begin trials in 24 business parks across the United Kingdom, each with at least five broadband end-users. In the trials, each business park would setup a wireless local area network, or LAN, that would be connected to a broadband hub via a two-way satellite.

The hope, according to the BAARD project description, is to hammer out a smooth and seamless integration between wireless LAN and two-way satellite operations. Other goals also include keeping bandwidth manageable while still providing a flexible service.

Although BAARD's primary focus is on business needs, if it's successful it could be adapted to serve rural communities hoping to hook into the Internet. It's ground component, the wireless LAN, has a radius of just over a mile (two kilometers), so a cost-effective version would be useful in small towns or villages.