Broadband satellite services are actually far more widespread and available than you might expect. There are a range of services available from residential class services such as HughesNet designed for a couple PCs, to higher end business class services that will support many PCs. In many cases, military units such as those located in Iraq will pool their funds to buy the hardware and a service contract that will service anywhere from 10 to 100 or more PCs. If everyone pays $50/mo (about what you would pay back home for broadband) you can get a very decent, high bandwidth broadband satellite service. In most cases, the group rotating out sells the equipment to the new unit who then signs their own service contract on a month-to-month, quarterly or annual basis, depending on the offerings available. Satellite coverage is available just about everywhere except the arctic and antarctic where the curve of the earth gets in the way of seeing the satellite.

Patrick Gannon
Business Satellite Solutions, LLC
www.bsatellite.com