File this one under "broad trends." The IEEE finished its work on the standard for 802.22 Wireless Regional Area Networks today. This is the standard that will be used to bring Internet access to rural and remote areas. With a range of around 60 miles, that means a generous area can be bathed in the soothing digital waves of the Internet. The actual implementation of such a system in the wild, rather than just in the test bed of Cambridge, UK, is still a long way off. But anything that is moving us towards a better way to distribute high speed Internet access is big news for us all.