Apparently, if you want to communicate over the galaxy, you need to use neutrinos instead of photons as neutrinos are much more noise free. We will hopefully have detectors for neutrino traffic next year some time.

Slashdot | Hubble Survey Finds Half of the Missing Matter

In the first time since 1992, ESA is looking for future astronauts. The requirements are stringent, but this is the job of a lifetime!