Virgin Galactic To Launch 2,400 Comm. Satellites To Offer Ubiquitous Broadband

coondoggie writes Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson this week said he wants to launch as many as 2,400 small satellites in an effort to set up a constellation capable of bringing broadband communications through a company called OneWeb to millions of people who do not have it. He said he plans to initially launch a low-earth-orbit satellite constellation of 648 satellites to get the project rolling.

Comments

The internet will route around

[Charcharodon]

In further news various governments have dropped all attempts at regulating the internet after the 15th successful kicker starter campaign has created yet another global network outside of their control....

Re: 2400 towers?

[Gavagai80]

but as satellite communications typically suffer horrendous lag, Skype won't be a viable alternative to a mobile phone (en_US: cell phone), and the local infrastructure can continue to develop on the back of voice calls.

The notorious lag is geosynchronous satellites, whereas this is low earth orbit satellites (which you need a lot more of to make it work, but will give you much better ping times).