Communications are fundamentally limited by the speed of light, though messages can be transmitted through the [[BTW/Gate|wormhole gates]] by carrying them on drones. The [[BTW/Wormhole Builders|builders of the wormholes]] seem to have designed the gates to facilitate high-bandwidth optical communications end-to-end, but protocols for accessing this capability have not been reverse engineered in spite of countless attempts over the centuries - a fact which has struck many people as curious given that the protocols for operating the gate system are straightforward and implemented without any apparent attempt at obfuscation. 

Within a single starsystem, radio and optical communications are both used extensively. Centers of habitation are often linked by high-bandwidth modulated laser systems (in orbit in the case of planets). These are often also used to communicate with interplanetary ships. UHF and VHF radio are more common within orbital space for utility purposes (e.g. traffic control), but optical communications for high-bandwidth links are also in wide use. Portable computers using software-defined radios are readily capable of exchanging real-time data (including audio) with a suitably equipped ship in orbit.

The Allied Worlds' internet makes extensive use of caching and local virtual servers to make most online services location-transparent. Specialist service providers for online commerce companies ensure than every major center of habitation, or at a minimum every starsystem, has a local server to take orders for their clients and serve dynamic content without major latency problems. However, for personal communications and shared entertainment (e.g. VR games), the speed of light delay is still limiting.

Bulk data is transmitted between systems by wormhole-traversing drones. These drones accumulate some amount of messages, traversing the wormhole when sufficient data has been accumulated to economically justify the expenditure of propellant. The frequency of traversal thus generally depends on the rate of message accumulation - the message drone data capacity is not limiting, rather, bandwidth to/from the drone and the necessity of expending propellant in traversing the wormhole are limiting. For emergency messages (and for anyone willing to pay), drones can also be made to transverse immediately. The number of drones that are part of each wormhole's communications system varies with the expected traffic. More than one type of drone may be employed. Messenger drones are made to tolerate much higher tidal forces than normal spacecraft, and if propellant economy is not a concern, they can transverse a wormhole much faster than a passenger ship. Their small size also allows them to pass ships traveling in the opposite direction.

Non-purpose-built interstellar ships may also participate in data transmission networks. The cheapest way to move data in bulk (several petabytes) when latency is not a major concern is to ship it. This is economically viable because of the bandwidth bottleneck of long-distance optical or radio transmission from a planet or station to a wormhole-trasversing drone that could be several AU away. While the bandwidth of these links is tremendous by 21st century earth standards for interplanetary communication, it is finite, and often saturated with more "urgent" communications. Moving ten exabytes of raw scientific data over the network would be very costly compared to mailing a mass storage unit. A sideline for many spacers is bringing a few mass storage modules with them in their personal effects, undercutting various postal services and sometimes offering quicker service. Spacing organizations may view such activity as more or less illicit. (The AWSF does not allow the practice, but since the space force isn't in the parcel post business and there's nothing very suspicious about spacers carrying mass storage modules in their personal effects, the prohibition is not usually well-enforced either; personnel who are busted for it usually did something else to encourage scrutiny of their activities.)