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Charity Raising Money To Buy Used Satellite
Zothecula writes "For those of us who live in the developed world, internet access has become pretty much a given. It's become so ubiquitous that we almost expect to have it at all times and in all places, but even in this 'Information Age,' the majority of the world's population lacks access to the internet – either because service isn't available where they are, or they can't afford it. Kosta Grammatis has a plan, however. Through his charity group ahumanright.org, Grammatis aims to set up a network of satellites that will provide free internet access to everyone in the world. He's starting by attempting to buy a single used satellite that's already in orbit and moving it to a location above a developing country."
...with a satellite receiver and a computer. Oh, and electricity. And probably enough food and water not to die before they get online.
Buying used satellites is just buying someone else's problems. Unless it is a cool classic satellite with tail fins.
Home of The Suki Series
Buying a used satellite is like buying a used bus... the only reason someone would sell it is because it has become cheaper to buy a new one than to maintain the old one!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
At some point, its going to have to tie into earth bound networks. That's where a lot of the ongoing cost is going to come from. But then perhaps the backbone providers can allow access in exchange for a tax write off.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Fuck that! My data is in SPACE!
These guys de-value what a human right actually is with this silly notion. It's simply a service, one that must be paid for, maintained and serviced.
Nuff said.
The moment some impoverished person starts sharing a shitty screener of True Grit, the MPAA will have a missile launched at the satellite.
Trolling is a art,
As soon as they get a couple 100,000 users (most of which will likely be in developed nations, just don't wanna pay) they'll figure out a way to start charging. No ISP is free.
... free Internet to increase piracy, spam, and malware... Does the free Internet come with a guide on how to not get pwned? "Free Internet" sounds like "come abuse me!"
If we had the satelites above then it might be possible to bypass the kill switch in any country. Remove the Kill Switch option through parallel paths.
Or perhaps he could just sell his orbital slot like these guys and use the money to establish a more honest government or a school.
Nullius in verba
You guys do know the United States and a few other countries have missiles that will destroy orbiting satellites right?
Get ready to write a big check to Mr. Kepler...
There is this minor issue of a ground station. Also, being somewhat used, how much fuel does it have left?
Anyhoo, it is neat idea to start a satellite company this way.
Lantancy...
There is a good reason why the internet isn't provided by satellites...
The less mid-eastern people have access to internet, the safer we all are!
Wouldn't it be more beneficial to take the money and build the infrastructure for the internet inside the country? This way, not only do they get internet access, they get jobs through the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure. This puts more money into their economy, more people are going to be able to afford internet, and those who can't afford internet will at least have more money to spend on food. Since he'd be donating this, it can be given to a state that is actually trying to develop and has a minimal amount of corruption. That would help ensure that the money is going towards what its supposed to. But internet access alone will not push a state into development unless is has the economic backbone to support it.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I'd rather buy the used Diamond Laser Satellite from James Bond Diamonds Are Forever: http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/gadgets/daf-gadgets?id=006
Do you think that I can get this recognized as a charity with a goal of: "Buying a giant diamond laser satellite that will be used to hold the world for ransom" ? The Bill Gates Foundation would certainly get on board.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
The internet is not a right... a cellphone is not a right, a car is not a right, modern technology is not a right, it's a privilege. While it sucks that people in some parts of the world don't have access to our fancy dancy technology, they have more important things to worry about like clean water, healthy food, safety from oppressive governments and war. I doubt they care about free internet. The developed world already has free WIFI. I can connect to 3 or 4 "free" access points from my couch, or go to starbucks, mcdonalds, or just about any savvy business.
Buying a used satellite is like buying a used bus... the only reason someone would sell it is because it has become cheaper to buy a new one than to maintain the old one!
If you believe that, you don't know anything about the satellite communications business.
I've been working at this for over a quarter of a century, and let me tell you that there are many factors that would influence buying a used satellite.
- How much remaining lifetime does it have?
- Do I need it right now, or can I wait the 2 years+ it would take to build a new one?
- Is it in inclined orbit?
- What's the coverage footprint?
- What's the frequency plan?
- What's the EIRP?
- What's the receive G/T?
- Do I have the landing rights?
- Does it have failed transponders, or any other failure?
It often happens that one has a satellite that will be perfect for someone else, but for our own specific purpose we need a replacement.
Even if you scrape up the money to buy a geosynchronous satellite and move it, it still costs a fair amount of money to keep the satellite in orbit and on station. You also will need to have acquired an orbital slot to where you want to move it. And you also have to maintain one or more earth stations from which the data traffic relayed up to/back from the satellite has to travel and all the associated bandwidth. Much more expensive (most likely) are "landing rights" for each country where you want to provide service - each nation controls rights to the airwaves over their territory, and you will need to license it - and that ain't cheap (and in many countries, especially in the developing world they will shake you down for a "joint venture" or foreign investment in their country to get the licenses). Oh, and of course there is (presumably) a need to manufacture satellite data terminals and subsidize them enough so that the people in these countries can afford them...
And they want to provide free service, or at least service affordable in developing countries? Are the underpants gnomes their business case consultants?
I really do love the idea here but it sounds like yet another exercise in wishful thinking where nobody with any real knowledge of the satellite industry bothered to think it through. Not a good use of time or money.
"95% of all Slashdot
Hope they figure out all the other expenses before the actually spend the money to buy the satellite. Tie in to existing internet infrastructure... providing a method for the people to connect to it... price to move the satellite.. is it possible to move it if they don't get those pieces in place first they'll wind up owning a big hunk of metal floating in space that they can't ever afford to use. Honestly, this seems like the most likely out come to me (assuming they can raise enough money to buy the satellite).
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Trying to fix or change something only guarantees and perpetuates it's existence
Base your headquarters in some country that would be happy to have you and doesn't have the wests draconian Copyright laws, guarantee never to release my traffic records and to enforce Net Neutrality, and I'll pay you for this service. I'll pay more than I'm paying now. Then you can use that money to buy more satellites and set them up in impoverished countries all over the world. I'd happily pay for 3rd world to have internet access for free if it kept my internet access private.
The ongoing cost of operating a satellite, assuming it is even suitable for what he wants, is in the ground station equipment and staff.
His _only_ prayer would be to get a university to adopt this as a project, and staff it with volunteers or something. When I was a student at CU Boulder in the late 80s and early 90s, there was some old science satellite that the university ran operations for. Heck if I can remember the name, but you need a large institution to eat the ongoing costs to make this even vaguely viable.
Necron69
Here's the plan: Make a splash with an audacious goal that highlights a massive, underserved market. Gather celebrity sign ons and generally woot-woot around the mediaverse for a while. Encounter inevitable delays. Watch market players notice your efforts, do the math (uh, 5 billion potential customers? wait, really?) and move in ahead of you.
I credit One Laptop Per Child not with distributing several hundred thousand laptops, which is a moderately nice thing to do, but kicking industry in the ass to invent the netbook, which was huge in increasing access to hardware. Remember when a 3lbs computer could not be had for less than $2000? That was, like, 2008.
Remember when you couldn't get Internet sat uplink for less than $500 a month? Oh yeah, that's right now.
There's a reason our society has progressed to the point of having internet access almost everywhere -- it has been built on all the things that came before it. We developed clean drinking water systems, sanitation, roads, markets, all of which lead us to a point where we not only had the tech to have internet everywhere -- but also the time to use it since we don't have to worry about all the other things.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Geosynchronous communications satellites use either the Ku band or the C band of Microwaves for signaling. Each band has about 1gigabit of total bandwidth available. That's why satellites are pretty good at carrying a bunch of TV *broadcasts* (100 channels at 10Mb each uncompressed - more compressed). For two-way communications, you have to multiplex. Since the round-trip time for packets is a significant fraction of a second, you can't multiplex using a LAN-style collision detection algorithm. You have to divide into channels by frequency division, then into circuits by time-division. Assignment takes a bit to negotiate, then has to be left set up that way for a while to allow any significant communications. The Upshot - you get a little over 700 users at T1 speeds (1.44Mb) each, or about 17,000 users at 56Kb. This ain't a "whole nation" and it ain't high-speed internet. If you dropped it down to 9600 baud you could let ~100,000 people do text-based email. I'm not seeing the advantage over running copper wire out to every village?
The Buy This Satellite site was mentioned on The Register a couple of months ago; that's the fundraising site for this project. I'll let The Register article speak for itself as far as casting doubt on the viability, but I think you get the gist from the headline; "Crazed buy-a-satellite-for-the-poor scheme raises $16k - Only a $hitload and a clue to find now"
Oh no... it's the future.
Is a "human right"? iPhones for everyone?
Where are all of these "human rights" listed, and who gets to update the list?
Let's separate the "hey, it would be nice to have XXX" from "human rights," the latter being things only constitutions can guarantee.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
AKA, taxpayers. Let's just be sure my basic human property rights are respected.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Did everyone else convert the bits to bytes?
Great. Spam from Space. That's just what the developing world needs.
Get a web developer
Sounds like you know a lot about satellites.
Can I ask: When you look at footprint maps, some seem to perfectly cover the borders of various countries (or continents). How do they do that?
Shouldn't footprints be circular in shape?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Speaking of which: is there any reason why they have to buy an entire satellite?
Why not just buy transmission time or couple of transponders on the (or a) satellite?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
This business plan is clearly based on following directions from a GPS.
The first thing a GPS says:
Acquiring satellites...
where exactly in the US Constitution is says the US is to surrender its sovereignty to the United Nations.
The US created and paid for the development of the Internet protocols and initial infrastructure, the topic of this article. I'd suggest that those without Internet would be better served launching their own political and industrial revolutions, and paying for their own Internet, rather than depending on charity.
Teach a man to fish, blah blah blah...
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you