Long-Distance Communication

As the grand frontier of humanity grew, so by necessity did its means of communicating with each other. This article lists the most common methods of long-distance communication in practice within the Reach.

Radio Broadcasting: Low-bandwidth. But cheap, reliable, and can be broadcast without a target.

Tightbeam Communications: Very high bandwidth, but point-to-point only. The 'standard' option for most users.

"Gravcomm" systems: Extremely low bandwidth and very power-hungry, but the only known method of Faster-Than-Light messaging.

Comm Buoys

Most populated star systems will have frequent comm buoys located throughout the various orbital zones, their position always very consistent so that they remain accessible to all forms of communication no matter how precise the sender needs to be. Their role in interplanetary communications is to spread extranet availability, boost weak radio signals, maintain a consistent spacer calendar, and relay point-to-point tightbeam or gravcomm communications.
Ships who wish to make use of a comm buoy must be properly registered with them, and must maintain a constant 'handshake' connection with their nearest bouy in order to receive any of its benefits - keeping it updated with their position, trajectory and comms-status. These connections are relatively secure, but ships who take pains to keep their communications private, or their presences hidden, often still choose to stay off the bouy network.
Comm buoys are often built by the Exchange in cooperation with a stellar region's ruling body. Between the tech and number required they are not cheap, but are well worth the investment for any system which plans on having a meaningful interplanetary presence.

Sub-Light Communications

Both the methods of communication below rely on mediums that cannot exceed the speed of light. So seamless real-time conversations, whilst using them, can really only be held between users within a couple-hundred-thousand miles of each other. Further distances will result in some awkward - though perhaps bearable - delays. At extreme distances, or through natural or artificial interferences, signals can become degraded.

Radio Broadcasting

One of the oldest forms of digital communication, the transmission of data through radio waves is still very much a current practice. Its primary benefits are its reliability, its affordability, and the fact that it's still the only form of modern comms that can be widely broadcast without the use of a broadcast medium - such as a comm bouy or television network. This makes it an effective method of communication for distress signals, or for when you do not know exactly where the target of your message is.
It's bandwidth is limited, but is still more than enough for audio-visual communication. It's also quite easily detected by unwelcome parties, but is much harder to actually block than point-to-point methods.

Tightbeam Communication

Tightbeam comms use a pulsed laser transmitter to beam messages towards a particular point in space. These transmissions are no faster than radio, but they can carry much more data - enabling the almost seamless upload and download of enormous data files. The extranet, a general term for the sector's various system-wide data networks, is hosted via tightbeam.
The only downsides of this method lie in its point-to-point nature, which for most users are negligible but which can result in some circumstantial complications. For example, because of its limited speed and its precise targeting requirements, you have to know where the receiver will be at the exact moment your transmission reaches them - though this complication is mitigated as long as the user is willing to pass their signal through a fixed-orbit comm buoy. The narrow focus of the tightbeam laser also means that your signal can be very easily intercepted on the way to its target, either accidentally by orbital masses such as planets, or deliberately by nosy ships who manage to position themselves in the way.

Faster-than-Light Communications

Since the Scream, the Reach has rediscovered just a couple of ways of communicating at FTL speeds. One is to manually carry mail from system to system via spike-drive-capable ships, the other is to remotely affect minute changes in gravitic charge - which are then interpreted into short messages.

Mail Ships

There is no way to send messages across star systems which wouldn't take years to make the journey, so ‘mail ships' are necessary for interstellar communication - spike-drive ships literally carrying message data between star systems. The quality of this service, how big the messages can be and how quickly they will be delivered, largely depends on the infrastructure along the delivery route.

• In the core, ships are hired and protected by the Arm of Onditz for this purpose. Maximum wait for response is 4 days per hex. This means that planets and even the Arm are left to operate autonomously, but always with a lot of consideration for their neighbours. Merchants can be reasonably sure that the look of the market when they leave the system will be the same when they arrive.
• In La Juene Frontiere, the Exchange manages the mail in partnership with Grande Orbite. Maximum wait for response is 6 days per hex. The larger gaps between worlds do mean that power is isolated between systems, and tend to flow back to Fatimah and Ismail only. Merchants have to be somewhat more savvy, though the simplicity of Fatimah’s gold rush market does make their job easier.
• In Iron Hook private mail companies pay independent ships to carry encrypted mail packages between systems, but this is an unreliable system. Maximum wait for response is 8 days per hex, and sending mail this fast costs credits. This attitude leads to isolated worlds that can be consumed by chaos whilst even their stellar neighbours remain oblivious - unwillingly or otherwise. Merchants have to be clever and versatile, not to mention protected, in a system like this. Predicting market fluctuations or relying on the mainstays - like weaponry - works.
• In Amberspace mail is barely managed, but is at least privately handled by the academy. Mail ships patrol only between Helate, Xenthra and Jala. Maximum wait for response is 14 days per hex. This leads to a slow, isolated, melancholic separation from the rest of the sector - it’s quiet, but lonely. Interstellar trade is minimal but reliable. Ships come in from the core worlds with desirable goods, and export psychics or Ambran biotech for quarantined study. Otherwise planets rely on their own bounties - as much as possible in worlds bio-engineered for a non-human species.

Gravcomms

Gravity-assisted communication systems, or "gravcomms", use a quirk of quantum resonance to affect minor gravitational changes instantly across any distance within a star system. These are then interpreted, using a gravitic sensor at the other end, into a near-binary method of communication. They rely on the use of very powerful and very precise gravtech systems to isolate, manipulate and detect minor changes in a single crohn particle's mCN rating (micro-Chronian-Newton count).

The Science

Crohn particles that do not hold any significant gravitational charge emit a kind of radiation along a bearing exactly opposite to the direction of their star. The most likely reason for this is that it assists gravitational transfer across inactive particles, i.e. across the void between star systems. But wilder theories exist which tie this radiation with the metadimensions and the ability to drop a ship in and out of drillspace at a system's edge - where such uncharged particles can be found naturally.
Through gravtech, an uncharged crohn particle and its radiation emissions can be artificially redirected towards neighbouring charged particles, this - for even less-understood reasons - immediately creates a quantum-level resonance field between the originating particle and the next uncharged particle in the radiation's path. Any charge then given to that originating particle is dispersed amongst every particle within the field. And since quantum resonance completes instantly, with no regard to the speed of light, this allows for the instant manipulation of gravitational force across vast distances.
A dramatic find, but not without its limitations.

Because the limits of the quantum field are defined by the first and last uncharged crohn particle encountered, the distance is restricted to within a single star system. It's for this reason that gravcomms are not suitable for interstellar transmissions.

Additionally, these quantum fields can comprise trillions of particles. And since the energy given to the field is always divided equally, affecting even a minor measurable change requires significant power.

And finally, the quantum field will collapse if the originating particle's charge grows beyond 0.003mCN - at which point the particle starts to behave normally and the field collapses, releasing any energy given through the process and returning each particle to its original level of charge.

This last limitation is especially important, as it means that this technology is not powerful enough to - for example - cause ships to fall out of the sky. What it can do though is remotely affect a small change which can be measurably read by gravitic sensors at the other end of the field, and then interpreted into simple data such as text. With this setup, instant faster-than-light communication becomes a reality.

Gravcomm Use

Functionally, gravcomms are similar to tightbeam communications in many ways. They are point-to-point, so they require you to know the exact position of your target or to connect to a comm buoy, and they are easily intercepted if already in the right position - though in this case they can only be blocked by a contragravity field, such as a spaceship or intercepting gravcomm device might carry. Unlike laser communications though the transmission is instant regardless of distance, provided the recipient is in the same star system.
Their main limitation is bandwidth, interpreting the minute changes in gravitic charge is only slightly more nuanced than using a binary method like morse code. A single transmission uses a lot of power, and can only relay one character at a time, so creating anything larger than a short paragraph of text will cause significant drains on a gravcomm's resources. The exact power requirements will depend on the amount of data being transferred and the size of the quantum field being charged - i.e. the distance between the user and their target.
Because of their power requirements and bandwidth limitations, and because on average a gravcomm will only really save hours if-not minutes over a sub-light method of communication, this system sees only rare use from most users. Nonetheless, if a message simply cannot wait, gravcomms are the only option - and so every spike-drive-capable ship is fitted with one by default.