I recently came across a blog discussion about a young lady planning to move to a remote island for a teaching position.  She wanted to be able to use Wikipedia while she was on this remote island, and was trying to find a way to gain internet access.  As could be imagined the island did not have DSL or Cable internet and likely did not even have Dial-Up internet access.  Naturally, my first reaction is to always suggest Wild Blue Satellite Internet Service.  However, I realized that there was a slight possibility that on a very select few remote islands Wild Blue internet access might not be available (sort of a joke, ok to laugh).  This could change with the launch of the new satellite next year, but that is beside the point.  We had to explore other options for her to get internet access.  Someone in the discussion suggested packet radio.  Don’t worry, I had no clue what this was either, but I did do a little research.  I found out that Packet Radio is a way of sending data through radio signals intended only for voice.  It uses packet switching technology to convert the data into a format that can be transmitted via radio wave based electronics.  Apparently, the conversion process is based on datagrams, which is basically the same technology used to transmit data via normal internet communications.  To make a long story short it turns out there is a lot of licensing and regulation that goes a long with doing this, not to mention quite a bit of technical knowledge.  I definitely think that satellite internet should be the first internet option considered when cable or DSL is not available.  However, in some areas such as remote islands the primary residential satellite internet service companies might not be available either.  There are several portable satellite internet options available that can operate anywhere in the world, however these are very expensive and are likely not affordable by the common person.  In cases such as this, packet radio could be all that is standing between you and the internet.