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Satellite Company Partners With Jeff Bezos' AWS To Bring Internet To 'Whole Planet' (cnbc.com)
Iridium Communications is partnering with Amazon Web Services to develop a satellite-based network called CloudConnect for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. "We're really covering the whole planet [...] with terrestrial networks today it's still only 10 percent or 20 percent" of the Earth, Iridium CEO Matt Desch told CNBC. "Everybody today can connect pretty easily with very little effort. Now that Amazon has put our language into the cloud platform, they can extend their applications to the satellite realm." From the report: CloudConnect, which the company expects to launch in 2019, makes Iridium "the first, and only, satellite provider now connected to" Amazon Web Services, Desch said. The CloudConnect network will focus on "where cellular technologies aren't," Desch said, bringing the rest of the world within reach of AWS. The company is nearly finished putting its Iridium NEXT constellation of 75 satellites into orbit. SpaceX is launching the $3 billion satellite network for Iridium, with the eighth and final launch happening later this year.
Once online, Iridium NEXT will offer services such as higher broadband communications speeds and global airplane tracking. Iridium describes the IoT aspect of the network as a "catalyst for strong subscriber growth." Desch said the network hosts "about half a million" active devices, growing at a rate of about 20 percent per year for the last three years. With AWS onboard, Desch gave a very bullish estimates for his IoT services: "Easily this could expand to tens of millions of devices."
Once online, Iridium NEXT will offer services such as higher broadband communications speeds and global airplane tracking. Iridium describes the IoT aspect of the network as a "catalyst for strong subscriber growth." Desch said the network hosts "about half a million" active devices, growing at a rate of about 20 percent per year for the last three years. With AWS onboard, Desch gave a very bullish estimates for his IoT services: "Easily this could expand to tens of millions of devices."
To spend $5 to send 1KB from my IoT platform
Did you learn nothing from the NSA and CIA leaks? If you let an American company run your communications infrastructure, then both them and their government will be all up in your internets.
This also requires avoiding American communication equipment. You cannot afford the risk to take the deal offered by Juniper, Cisco, and other American vendors, so they can get inside your networks. A good choice would be Ericsson or Nokia telecom equipment, since they are both neutral and have no allegiance to any government or political entities, and (unlike American vendors) have never been discovered to backdoor their equipment.
Great, more bandwidth for my fridge. And once they run out of repositioning fuel there'll be 75 more pieces of space junk in orbit. I wonder how many 'dark satellites' there are in orbit that are technically functional yet have been abandoned because they're no longer able to maintain the desired orbit. I bet enthusiasts could do some interesting things if given access to those.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
They also don't have money to buy crap from Amazon, so why should Jeff give a fuck about them?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This will be immensely useful when our masters begin using their robot army to genocide the global working class.
That's not how satellites work. Their fuel budget includes a burn for deorbit (LEO) or pushing out into a graveyard orbit (GEO).
What happened to similar Google plan?
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Great, more bandwidth for my fridge. And once they run out of repositioning fuel there'll be 75 more pieces of space junk in orbit.
Actually, Iridium's NEXT constellation is for a lot more than just IoT, they are for L-band (up to 1.5 Mbit/s) and K-band (up to 8 Mbit/s) communications. These are extremely desirable and will only go out of use if they enter an uncontrolled orbit. Each satellite has a deorbitting system. "From 2017, several first-generation Iridium satellites have been deliberately de-orbited after being replaced by operational Iridium NEXT satellites"
I wonder how many 'dark satellites' there are in orbit that are technically functional yet have been abandoned because they're no longer able to maintain the desired orbit. I bet enthusiasts could do some interesting things if given access to those.
Communication satellites like this? I can answer that: Zero.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I've got a cabin way out in the boonies where I can't get strong internet. It sounds more realistic than the whole google balloons project.
Now, tell me when I can buy a $10 CloudConnect device from any of the usual chinese suppliers. That is when it will become an interesting technology. Just so long as the subscription fees are in the cent's per month category.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
This won't be used for consumer stuff, it's way too expensive and too bandwidth limited. They won't be able to deliver ads to your fridge over satellite. That will use your wifi.
This is for stuff like monitoring pipelines and remote parts of the environment. Drone ships at sea.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
This is for stuff like monitoring pipelines and remote parts of the environment. Drone ships at sea.
It's cheaper to just run a wire down the pipeline, and connect with a normal satellite installation. But drone ships at sea? Absolutely. Or just anyone who needs to be moving around. You have to re-aim satellite every time you move it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
We already have satellite internet service, this is just a power grab.
This Amazon collaboration with Iridium is going to be interesting to watch on the Net Neutrality front.
As long as Bezos operates an independent walled garden then he's in the clear to make up his own rules, but as soon as he turns CloudConnect into a global ISP (if that is what he is intending) then he'll come under Net Neutrality rules wherever they apply, and that means on most of the planet. The small minority of people who reject Net Neutrality in USA for party political reasons is entirely irrelevent in this global context.
Since Bezos does not currently provide first-hop connectivity and hence is not running an ISP, his Amazon walled garden does not come under scrutiny on net nor platform neutrality grounds, only on different grounds such as privacy. As a global ISP though, it seems likely that his previous freedom to do as he pleases (for example by benefitting only his Amazon merchants) is going to be curtailed in a manner which he will dislike greatly.
Facebook seems to be moving in the same direction, and undoubtedly there will be many others too. Net Neutrality of satellite ISPs seems certain to become a major issue.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Great, more bandwidth for my fridge. And once they run out of repositioning fuel there'll be 75 more pieces of space junk in orbit.
People partially have already commented, just as anonymous so here is my summary:
1. Satellites: nowadays technology allows for LEO (low Earth orbit) deployment of clusters of communication satellites, where there is still some drag from air molecules, which results in orbit decay, e.g. ISS has to boost its orbit regularly (also such orbits allow for low latency communication), additionally nowadays satellites are required to have either deorbiting capability or moving to so called "graveyard" orbits, where, even when decommissioned do not pose thread to other space assets.
2. Internet for everybody: maybe you live in an urban area, so having high bandwidth internet is nothing special, but there are rural places or undeveloped countries, where building infrastructure for high bandwidth internet is too expensive and many people do not have it, so having a global internet access is not only good for people, who do not have it, but also for humanity as a whole in case of any disasters or for automatic science data collectors. An example: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - not only we would've known where, but maybe even people could've been saved. Another example (less drastic) is Event Horizon Telescope, people take airplanes to carry TBs of data on hard-drives - in this case a proper bandwidth would be required.
Wow, that is just stupid. You have no idea how Iridium works. Hint, it's not like that.
Wow, you are cowardly. I'm obviously talking about typical satellite internet systems and not Iridium there. Granted, I didn't make it clear, but it's equally clear that your parser is broken.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When Iridium was launched in the 1990s, with backing from Bill Gates and others, it was a promising project: internet access almost anywhere on the planet.
However, they required big hand sets with big antennas. But then GSM phones became ubiquitous where humans are concentrated (cities, towns, suburbs, ...etc.) and there was not much of a need for Iridium, apart from those who live, or work, or travel to, remote areas. Not much of a market.
The company went bust, and this iteration is an attempt to revive it.
The requirement for custom handsets and/or modems is still there.
How much will these cost?
How much would a monthly data plan cost?
Are the speeds adequate for today's bloated web sites?
It may remain as a niche business, for business (not consumers), much like Thuraya.
We will see ...
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
So what they're saying is that aside from physically hacking so-called 'IoT' devices to prevent them from connecting in this way, you'll have precisely zero positive ability to actually control the transceivers? Great. That means 'IoT' devices will be even less secure than ever before. Botnet owners will be thrilled.
So many sat connections coming to the planet.
I think that the net neutrality issue is about to go away.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I keep seeing new things that Amazon is getting involved in, and its getting ridiculous.
Whats next?
It is long past time to break up Amazon.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Wait you guys, I thought Amazon has too much money!? Surely you won't support a project of theirs that they spent said money on... right?
Bezos is not that attractive.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.