It's an Australian thing.
You may or may not have noticed the amount of slashdot coverage of the woeful state of broadband in Australia, mostly thanks to our ludite Communications minister, but also thank to Telstra. Basically there are lots of areas in Australia - and I mean lots - that simply do not have a chance in hell at accessing broadband. There are places in Australia where the connection isn't good enough to send a fax!
When you've got a country approximately the size of the US and 2.5 people per square kilometer, it's very understandable.
But anyway, I strongly suspect that this is a way of testing the viability of broadband by satelite in a different manner. Because there's bugger all chance that these places are going to get cable to them! So, not so much broadband anywhere in the world (though with lots of these satelites, I'm sure it's possible!), it really means "You can even get broadband in Upper Whoop Whoop, right next to that big rock thingy"
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It's cheap compared to the alternatives.
Australia has many places that are so remote, $20 million is peanuts compared to what it would cost to get cable out to them.
It's all a matter of perspective.
It's an Australian thing. You may or may not have noticed the amount of slashdot coverage of the woeful state of broadband in Australia, mostly thanks to our ludite Communications minister, but also thank to Telstra. Basically there are lots of areas in Australia - and I mean lots - that simply do not have a chance in hell at accessing broadband. There are places in Australia where the connection isn't good enough to send a fax! When you've got a country approximately the size of the US and 2.5 people per square kilometer, it's very understandable. But anyway, I strongly suspect that this is a way of testing the viability of broadband by satelite in a different manner. Because there's bugger all chance that these places are going to get cable to them! So, not so much broadband anywhere in the world (though with lots of these satelites, I'm sure it's possible!), it really means "You can even get broadband in Upper Whoop Whoop, right next to that big rock thingy"