For this it does need to be near. These are all high-speed connections that need line of sight. Basically those microwave dishes that you see everywhere. Or at least a grid reflector or yagi or something.
With HF yes you can use the various atmospheric layers to reflect depending on band but in those bands the available bandwidth is extremely low (the entire HF range itself is only 30mhz and the amateurs only have a few small slices of that). The only practical digital operations there are Morse, RTTY (basically telex) and some obscure extremely-slow GPS synced data modes like WISPR and FT8 that are basically for distance bragging rights but don't transmit useful payload.
So in effect, no. In this case line of sight or at least short distances (VHF/UHF) are required.
Also, I don't have space for huge antennas that HF requires as I'm in a small apartment in the middle of a built-up city.
With HF yes you can use the various atmospheric layers to reflect depending on band but in those bands the available bandwidth is extremely low (the entire HF range itself is only 30mhz and the amateurs only have a few small slices of that). The only practical digital operations there are Morse, RTTY (basically telex) and some obscure extremely-slow GPS synced data modes like WISPR and FT8 that are basically for distance bragging rights but don't transmit useful payload.
So in effect, no. In this case line of sight or at least short distances (VHF/UHF) are required.
Also, I don't have space for huge antennas that HF requires as I'm in a small apartment in the middle of a built-up city.