Despite having a way of travelling between points in space via Hyperspace, Communication Speed in the Empire is actually extremely slow by comparison. This is because while ships and machines can travel through hyperspace, signals end up distorted and useless over a very short distance. This means that communication signals are limited to the speeds they can travel in realspace and the physics that rule over normal reality. A signal moving at light speed would still take 1 year to reach it’s destination if it were sent from a light year away.

Thus there are three commonly used methods to get information between systems at faster than light speeds.

1. Courier Drones- robot ships that travel between systems following the jump-point network routes until they reach their destination. Small, efficient, but expensive. These are used by the government, the military and the very rich.
2. Courier Ships – these private ships travel about carrying data much like old mail boats, and when they reach a new system they “fill up” on data waiting to go to their future destinations and carry it with them to the next system.
3. Hitching a Ride – One way for ships to make extra money as they travel is to set aside a certain amount of their ship’s computer memory for carrying data. This space is “rented” by companies which wish that data to go to a place on the ship’s planned route and then inserted in the ship’s memory before it leaves by the company. This data is encrypted, and ships almost never know what data they are carrying, nor do they have access to it. Once they reach the destination the data is “offloaded” by the local representatives and erased from the memory stores, only to be replaced by more data heading for other destinations.

As such, each solar system and ship is very much alone in the galaxy as they move between the stars. A ship in an uninhabited system cannot call for help (except by using a limited supply of drones to physically travel the distance) and often a major event is learned of days, weeks or even months after it occurs. Ship captains rely heavily on information carried by ships coming the other direction to know what the conditions are like up ahead, and sometimes nasty surprises await them due to delayed or inaccurate information.

From a military perspective, Imperial Starship Captains have a very large degree of latitude and power exactly because they are unable to call home to confirm or check for new orders. Once a ship is in the field is operates almost completely autonomously until it reaches a place where it can recieve new orders. In addition, military campaigns must often be planned out in advance with limited intelligence about enemy fleet movements and locations. A fleet may leave just as another fleet arrives, or two fleets could easily come face to face unexpectedly with possibly disasterous consequences. There is no greater advantage than to know the course of your enemy without him knowing you’re aware of his movements.