Whenever I talk with my consulting clients, the topic of retreat locales almost inevitably comes up. When describing their criteria for a new retreat property they almost always say something to the effect of: “The property has to have an existing phone line or one nearby, so that we can have Internet service.” But these days, I’m now quick to point out: “That shouldn’t be an issue.” Why? Because things have changed. Lots of Asians, Europeans, and Americans now have no traditional “land line” phone service at all. They utilize the steadily expanding network of cellular phone towers. Even more crucially, reliable and affordable two-way satellite Internet systems are now available. Early in 2001, two companies, DirecPC (DirecWay) and Starband, began to fill the pent-up need for two-way satellite Internet systems. For a satellite dish to both send and receive signals, the alignment between the dish and the satellite must be precise. This can be a bit tricky. A few experimenters have put these same dishes atop RVs and fifth-wheel trailers. (See: http://eduscapes.com/mm/motosat/.)
For more information on two-way satellite Internet systems, see these sites:
http://www.satsig.net/ivsat.htm
http://centre.telemanage.ca/links.nsf/key/Direcway
In essence, you can now put a survival retreat just about anywhere south of the Arctic Circle (or north of the Antarctic Circle) as long as there is a source of potable water. Thanks to photovoltaics and modern sine wave inverters (a la Xantrex), a connection to the power grid is not an issue. You can make your own power. The aforementioned factors open up lots of new retreat possibilities such as remote regions in the western U.S. or “The Wet” of northern Australia, and perhaps even lightly inhabited islands out in the South Pacific. Wait a minute. Do I hear ukuleles?