The growing number of Internet service providers using fixed wireless access technology is posing a problem for radio astronomers in Japan because the transmissions are threatening a project to explore the outer reaches of space.

The VERA Project, organized by the National Astronomical Observatory, aims to generate the first-ever three-dimensional map of the Milky Way galaxy by "tuning in" to waves emitted by warm interstellar gas.

The project will be jointly conducted by four telescope stations around the country: the Mizusawa Astrogeo- dynamics Observatory in Iwate Prefecture; Chichijima Island, some 1,000 km south of Tokyo; the town of Iriki, Kagoshima Prefecture; and Ishi gakijima Island in Okinawa Prefecture.