In 2006, the European Commission sponsored the UNIC project which aims at developing an end-to-end scientific test bed for the distribution of new broadband interactive TV-centric services delivered over low-cost two-way satellite to actual end-users in the home.
These usually come in the shape of a self-contained flat rectangular box that needs to be pointed in the general direction of the satellite-unlike VSAT the alignment need not be very precise and the modems have built in signal strength meters to help the user align the device properly.