>From the Boston Globe.... Net access via satellite a tough sell
Satellite-based broadband Internet access has yet to make much of a splash, attracting fewer than 2 percent of US broadband users. But despite a slow start, a sister company of the DirecTV satellite-television operation is this week cranking up a big marketing push for an enhanced version of its "DirecWay" broadband operation. With recent technological upgrades -- and more enhancements planned by September -- Hughes Network Systems Inc. hopes to persuade big US companies and institutions that satellite can be a viable, though premium-priced, alternative to cable modems and telephone digital subscriber lines for telecommuting employees who need secure access to office networks. <snip> At the end of 2003, just 367,000 US homes and businesses got broadband Internet service through satellite or high-speed wireless data services, according to the Federal Communications Commission and Leichtman Research Group, a Durham, N.H., consulting and market-analysis firm. Hughes said that it has about 200,000 residential and small-business broadband Internet subscribers. That compares with more than 26 million subscribers to cable modems or DSL. More than 80 percent of US residents can get DSL, cable broadband, or both. "Availability may be an issue in some parts of rural America, but it is not an issue in any large way in urban or suburban America," said Bruce Leichtman, president of the research group. "There may be a few pockets here and there that don't have cable or DSL, but they are few and far between." http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/07/19/net_access_via_satellite_a_tough_sell/ or http://tinyurl.com/54quv ------------------------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/ -------------------------------------------------
