Considerable savings could be achieved if agencies secured bulk rates for satellite transmission. The Texas House has looked into this option. The cost would run into the millions of dollars, but the transponder would be available 24 hours a day. The state would have use of the satellite as long as it was functional, probably about 20 years. The House Administration Committee is exploring this and other alternatives.
New technologies promise to save money in satellite transmissions.
Compression, for example, reduces the amount of information transmitted to a satellite. Another option is terrestrial transmission, which uses existing phone and cable lines to distribute digital information. Video is digitized, compressed, and sent over phone or cable lines to schools, TV stations, cable companies, or anyone with the proper computer software and, if possible, a high bandwidth phone line. The Internet is a form of terrestrial transmission. As the quality of transmission improves and costs come down, terrestrial transmission may be more practical for distributing video programming to a large audience.