So you’ve probably read that Wildblue Satellite uses ’spot beam technology’ so they can reuse transmission frequencies. I mentioned this to a friend who’s been in the IT industry almost since it started, and he commented, “Sounds like sales talk to me.” And you know, he’s right – it DOES sound like the kind of techie sales talk that makes people nod and go ‘uh huh’ while their eyes start glazing over. When I went looking for an easy way to explain spot beam technology and why Wildblue uses it, I ran into lots of talk about ‘footprints’ and ‘wide beams’ and ‘narrow beams’ that didn’t help make it any clearer. What I wanted was an explanation that my mother would understand. So here it is.