I am embarrassed to note that I missed a big story.

It was the Sunday's launch by Europe's Ariane rocket of a Canadian satellite designed to bring true broadband speeds to the Great White North. (Image from the CBC.)

Canada will commercialize the huge Ka band to deliver the service. This will be shared bandwidth, with fairly high latency, which is why U.S. attempts to commercialize the service have failed. But Telesat Canada, a Bell Canada Enterprises unit, says roughly 20% of Canadians cannot access broadband speeds with DSL, cable, or even 802.11. Now the whole country is within reach.

And that is very cool.