Will satellite time even be necessary in 10 years?

Another quick brain dropping in the media transformation department: a friend invited me to the Reuters TV studio for the filming of America Abroad Media’s latest U.S.-Pakistan telecast, which featured Frank Sesno and former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage in Washington, Lt. Gen. David Grange (USA, ret.) in Chicago, and a former Pakistani foreign minister and a couple other folks in Islamabad. Here’s the scene.

It was truly remarkable watching the pros in the studio coordinate a filming all the way around the world, using a satellite video feed and a phone line for audio because it had less of a delay.

The guys really had to be on top of their game, as satellite time doesn’t come cheap. And yet as I watched, I wondered, in a few years and a few thousand more multiplexed fiber optic cables, will we even need those satellites anymore? Won’t iChat and a broadband connection be enough?