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Elon Musk is talking with satellite industry executives about creating smaller, less-expensive satellites "that can deliver Internet access across the globe", according to a Wall Street Journal article today.
Citing anonymous sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk is working with Greg Wyler, a former Google executive who founded a new company called WorldVu Satellite.
"In talks with industry executives, Messrs. Musk and Wyler have discussed launching around 700 satellites, each weighing less than 250 pounds, the people familiar with the matter said," the Journal wrote. "That is about half the size of the smallest communications satellites now in commercial use. The constellation would be 10 times the size of the largest current fleet, managed by Iridium Communications Inc."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by goody on Sunday November 09 2014, @04:36PM
The problem with satellites in regards to Internet access is that they're really much better suited for pushing content (like video), not interactive two way communication due to latency and the nature of satellite coverage footprints. The technology to transmit the uplink channel is much more expensive than the receiving equipment and not practical to deploy on a widespread scale economically in the areas they're probably trying to reach. A more practical use would be to distribute content from major sites to caching servers in these poor, remote areas. I know that doesn't address the last mile problem, but they're going to be pushing water uphill to do that with satellites.