Discussion about this site, its organization, how it works, and how we can improve it.

While satellite technology has been an important communication access technology for decades, the field has exploded in recent years with the development of Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) and now Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations that are capable of delivering broadband at unprecedented speed and capacity. It is challenging to keep pace with news of constellations like Starlink, Project Kuiper, and others. Even more challenging is sort out fact from marketing hype and trying to understand what the true impact of these developments is likely to be. The purpose of this forum is to share knowledge, expertise, and attempt collectively assess the impact of the evolving state of satellite broadband or ‘broadband from space’. Discussion is open to any satellite broadband technology from High Throughput Satellites to MEOs, LEOs, and beyond.

The “Community networks tech-talk” webinars are a series of online gatherings promoted by the APC and Rhizomatica’s Local Networks initiative, aiming to build dialogues, information exchange and knowledge sharing between people engaged with community networks and local access initiatives in different realities and countries. We intend to held monthly live encounters to discuss different topics related social and tech aspects of CNs and use this forum for asynchronous conversation around them.

This section is for the discussion of policy and regulation as it relates to community networks, cooperatives, and even small ISPs. Got a question about regulation on your country? Got an opinion about existing laws and regulations? Got a better idea? This is the place to talk about it. Regulation can be complex. The technology, the terminology, the processes can be difficult to interpret. Ask questions! Remember, when you ask a question, you may also be doing a favour for someone who wanted to know but was too shy to ask.