The Highway and the Skyway
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When you talk on the phone, go online or watch TV, you probably don’t think about how it works. You’re just happy it does.
But behind the faraway voices, the apps and the shows, there is a network. It is made of wires and switches, radios, glass fibers and lasers, computers and servers, antennas on the ground and satellites in the sky.
It is also made of people. People who work in places called teleports. Teleports are the nerve centers where the digital highway in the sky meets the digital network on the ground.
Building the Networks that Link Earth and Sky
Teleports take in the TV shows and movies, the news stories and commercials and turn them into a stream of programs beamed to your TV or mobile device. They build and run the networks that control airplanes in flight and let you use credit cards at a store. They bring the Internet to the screens of millions in developing nations, and make it possible for billions to use their mobile phones.
Companies in banking and retail, energy and shipping turn to teleports to create networks and keep them running. Teleports are the center of healthcare delivery and distance learning. They connect soldiers in the field and drones in the air to make warfighters more effective and protect their lives. And when the world’s systems fall apart, through natural disaster or conflict, people from teleports are on the front line, delivering satellite terminals and connecting relief workers so they can do their jobs.
Connecting What is Hardest to Connect
It all takes place behind the scenes and out of sight. Teleports connect the parts of the global network that are hardest to connect. They make technologies work together that were never meant to do so. Because of teleports and the people who run them, the phone rings, the Internet connects and TV entertains and informs you. Every day, teleports put the satellites in the sky to work for all of us on the ground.
The World Teleport Association advocates for the interests of the commercial teleport industry and promotes excellence in their operations, technology and business practices. More at www.worldteleport.org.