Smallcomb describes a new global broadband communications satellite service under development at Hughes Electronics. The Spaceway system will provide a variety of inexpensive broadband services with small satellite dishes, with data rates ranging from 512Kbps upstream and up to 30Mbps downstream. Applications will range from Internet access (with a strong multi-media component) to LAN/WAN solutions for telecommuters, SOHO's and large enterprises. The service will be initiated in North America in 2003.

Spaceway's full mesh point-to-point and multi-cast communications architecture provides an enabling technology for the development of high bandwidth peer-to-peer applications, such as file sharing, distributed databases and de-centralized content distribution.