Once humans had considered expanding beyond Nova Satus, they quickly ran into a problem. Nova Satus’s third moon had already been colonized, but that was close enough to the planet itself that traditional communication using electromagnetic waves such as radio waves could be used. However, they found that, even if they could reach another planet in a matter of minutes, they had no reliable way to connect the two in terms of information.
An early proposed solution was to have manned ships carry drives of information between the two, like an archaic postal service delivering letters. This solution was quickly decided against, though using manned ships was given some serious consideration and testing. Studies were done on the cost needed to operate these and distribute the information where it needed to go.
Eventually, computer scientist Cory Aslan proposed a solution. The idea is basic, with each planet having an information hub that transfers between other planetary hubs and distributes to its own planet wirelessly. The difficult part was the communication between hubs.
The solution, Dr. Aslan said, was to have a continuous stream of high-density drives warped between hubs on micro-ships. These carriers of less than 1 meter width would warp into a communication hub’s slot, offload its info and take on new info while the algae recharge, then warp back away to make room for the next one coming in. The hardest part of this solution was that thus far, vehicles capable of warping did not exist at such a small scale and warps were not this precise. Thankfully, research and development for them was funded and Dr. Aslan’s scheme is still in use today.
Most planets, even non-human ones, use the same system of hubs, creating a truly linked interstellar internet between governments and species. Some planets only have one or two hubs, while planets like Nova Satus have hundreds. Very rarely does a settled planet not have a hub, when colonizing a new planet it is usually one of the first installations added. Some rare exceptions are Deisos and Christland, whose citizens wish to be disconnected from the rest of the galaxy for their own reasons.
Of course, all hubs are not connected to all other hubs. Similar to how traditional internet may have to go between several routers, information might need to go between several hubs to reach its destination.
Either way, having a several minute delay means that some activities, like live calling or online games, are impossible to do interstellar.
Scientists have theorized about ways to utilize quantum entanglement for instant communication from anywhere in the universe, but no significant results in this direction have been published.