tech

New space race to bring satellite internet to the world

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By Ivan Couronne

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mmwkdw wrote,

It's been around for a long time.. but is expensive.... cheaper alternatives exist.

But fast, cheap broadband is not available everywhere. An in some place there is only one or two options and the provider asks outrageous fees for relatively slow and unreliable service.

These new satellite networks are hoping to deploy each satellite for ~US$2-10M each. That's just 10 to 50 times the cost of a cell tower installation with no recurring lease payments for the property it sits on. These satellites also tend to have a coverage area that's far greater than that of a cell tower, given that they will be around 300km to 1,000km overhead.

About 10% of the continental US population are good service candidates because of issues getting cheap, fast broadband. Most of the population of Alaska, Canada and much of central and south America are potential customers. I can't speak for other parts of the world though.

LEO satellite broadband internet has the potential to bring cost-effective internet providers to tens of millions of under-served people in just the Americas... Whether it will or not depends on just how cost-effective the solution really is and if they can create and run it profitably.

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It's been around for a long time.. but is expensive.... cheaper alternatives exist. One has to look no further than some of the forerunners to today's internet in order to understand that. Should anyone remember, FidoNet / UseNet, as examples. However Advertisers wish to reach users - so they will be the ones to push this activity of "internet-outreach"... Facebook will undoubtably, be in the forefront there, competing with Google....

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i remember back when they just started selling satellite internet was really bad in rainy weather or windy weather, i don't know why they still think it's will work - unless they found solution this problem then i would give it a try also its really expensive.

With improved satellite technology it might work this time.

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i remember back when they just started selling satellite internet was really bad in rainy weather or windy weather, i don't know why they still think it's will work - unless they found solution this problem then i would give it a try also its really expensive.

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