Elon Musk and SpaceX have taken their first major step towards setting up a network of low orbit satellites to provide everyone on earth with fiber-optic speed Internet. Last week they filed paperwork with the FCC requesting permission from the federal government to launch and test their satellites. Via the Washington Post:
The plan calls for launching a constellation of 4,000 small and cheap satellites that would beam high-speed Internet signals to all parts of the globe, including its most remote regions. Musk has said the effort “would be like rebuilding the Internet in space.”
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The satellites would be deployed from one of SpaceX’s rockets, the Falcon 9. Once in orbit, the satellites would connect to ground stations at three West Coast facilities. The purpose of the tests is to see whether the antenna technology used on the satellites will be able to deliver high-speed Internet to the ground without hiccups.Despite a history of failed satellite ventures, wealthy individuals and companies are pouring fresh funds into exploring satellite-based communications. Google and Fidelity recently invested $1 billion into SpaceX, in part to support the satellite broadband Internet project.
Among those failed satellite ventures is a $9 billion pit project from the ’90s involving Bill Gates and a Saudi prince. And also currently trying to set up a spacenet is Richard Branson and his bud Greg Wyler, who may be the coolest tech innovator you’ve never heard of. He’s spent the last 15 years doing stuff like deploying 3G in Africa and conventional satellite Internet along the equator.
Considering the difficulty in setting up a space-based wireless Internet with fiber-optic speeds, it’s a good thing we’ve got several genius billionaires and a bunch of non-a-hole mega-corporations working on it. Let’s just hope the government agencies and entrenched telecommunication monopolies running our current terrestrial Internet don’t screw things up or slow them down. It would be so typical of our times if we had the technical ability to create wireless high speed Internet around the world via space but no political ability to allow everyone to use it.