I bit the bullet this week and invested into a BGAN unit. BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) gives someone the capacity to get on the internet anywhere in the world. I have wanted one since being in Haiti. Typically the first 1-3 days of a major disaster there are real problems with cell phone access to the internet. It has been something I couldn’t really justify until now, these things are expensive (especially the data plans) but living in Hawaii and realizing that we are pretty much in a Tsunami alley, plus the fact that it might be a few days before real help could arrive (depending on how bad the airports get jacked up), this made sense to me.

If something happens, or if I go into an area that doesn’t have cell phone access, I should still be able to get online.

The BGAN 500 is about the size of a large book and weighs about 5 pounds. Looking forward to testing it out as soon as my data plan is set up.

BGAN Unit Description on Wikipedia