Affordable high-speed Internet by satellite?

[The new Anik F2 satellite] will, for the first time, let an Anik satellite deliver two-way, broadband Internet service to any location in North America at a price that’s competitive with residential cable or DSL high-speed services.

Previously, you’d have to spend at least a couple hundred dollars a month to get high-speed access to your cottage or rural business. Bush estimates Telesat’s consumer high-speed Internet service, which will be sold through a distribution network yet to be announced (but likely to include Bell Canada), will cost only 5 to 10 per cent more than what Torontonians pay for high-speed services from Sympatico and Rogers.

Via Boing Boing. As it stands, I’m fortunate that Shawville and a few other places around the Pontiac have high-speed Internet via DSL or cable. But, while I like living out in the boonies — most of the time! — the absence of high-speed Internet outside certain towns and villages is rather limiting. Absent this satellite, my choices were to (1) limit myself to places like Shawville that have it, (2) resign myself to dial-up (making do with dial-up accelerators), or (3) shell out for seriously expensive satellite service. So this is good.