Slashdot Mirror
OneWeb Wants To Rebuild the Internet in Space, Connecting Billions Not on the Web (cityam.com)
Later today, the first six of OneWeb satellites are expected to be launched.[Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source] from a remote launch site in French Guiana, a key step toward building out a constellation that could eventually reach nearly 2,000. From a report: If OneWeb's founder Greg Wyler plans are successful, what he and his fellow executives at OneWeb envision is nothing short of revolutionary: becoming one of the world's largest providers of Internet service by building the architecture in space, allowing the billions without access to WiFi to finally use the Web. Wyler founded the British-based company in 2012.
"The ultimate goal is to connect every school in the world, and bridge the digital divide," Wyler said in an interview after his pep talk. "We're bringing connectivity and enabling it for people around the world, and in rural populations." If successful, remote areas all over the world, from Alaska to Africa, that are out of reach of fiber optic cables could suddenly join the world of Google and YouTube, a feat Wyler and others believe could be transformative. But building the backbone of the Internet in orbit is no easy task. Others have tried to put up constellations of communications satellites, only to fail spectacularly. The enormous cost is only outmatched by the risks of putting up hundreds of spacecraft in orbit.
"The ultimate goal is to connect every school in the world, and bridge the digital divide," Wyler said in an interview after his pep talk. "We're bringing connectivity and enabling it for people around the world, and in rural populations." If successful, remote areas all over the world, from Alaska to Africa, that are out of reach of fiber optic cables could suddenly join the world of Google and YouTube, a feat Wyler and others believe could be transformative. But building the backbone of the Internet in orbit is no easy task. Others have tried to put up constellations of communications satellites, only to fail spectacularly. The enormous cost is only outmatched by the risks of putting up hundreds of spacecraft in orbit.
A new Web would be a better idea. One that the government has not broken. It would be only a matter of time before they got their greedy little hands on a new Web too, but at least for a while, the internet would be the internet again and not just a government run collection racket for music and movie industry.
First of all, SpaceX is about to do the exact same thing, with many more satellites at a fraction of the cost. To be anything more than a footnote, a project like this has to be first out of the gate and so huge the competition doesn't have a chance. There just isn't enough room in space endeavours for small players to carve out niches.
Second, the goal is schools. Every 'big project' that involves schools involves layers and layers of red tape and idiocy. Sure, there's money to be had, but it's squandered on everything 'but' the intended project. Even 'if' they get their satellite service built and operating, the actual 'use' of it will be locked down and limited for the most stupid reasons. Schools that can afford it will find alternate providers for their internet.
So the schools that can afford it won't use OneWeb and the schools that can't afford (or have avaiable) an alternative ISP also can't afford to pay for the system costs.
OneWeb is doomed to (very expensive) failure.
I'm sure that will raise the quality of our public discourse...sigh...
Seriously, what the hell are they thinking? The Google internet blimp idea was a stroke of genius compared to this drooling idiocy.
I assume cryptocurrency is part of this plan somewhere, too. It has to be.
A liar and cheat rat on a liar and a cheat for whom he lied and cheated. Must see, and only on NBC. Oh, yeah, Russia, too, baby!
when companies seeking to (re)build internet infrastructure don't know the difference between the internet and the world-wide web.
Both are broken, in different ways, but both are wildly different. I really wouldn't want a connection that only gives me "web"-access, like teh zuck's "internet.org free basics" idiocy. I don't know what this is, but I certainly don't trust the blurb. It sounds moronic.
Those that are in rural areas know how bad the sky muster is.
One question, whats the price?
GEO != LEO.
When was the last time you ran anywhere? I mean with your own legs, not by pressing 'X'?
I have to wonder what the Chinese Government thinks about projects like this, as it seems like a pretty easy way to bypass their countries firewall restrictions.
How do they stop something like this? Ban the ownership of OneWeb receivers? How would they even enforce that? Would they take even more drastic efforts if the service became popular, like run a signal jammer on that frequency?
I doubt that it would get to the point where they start shooting down "rogue" satellites over their airspace, but I guess that's what Trump wants Space Force for :)
Sometimes, the problem isn't just lack availability of the internet, it's also the cost.
He'll need to make sure that his internet is cheap enough that people in those rural populations can afford to use it.
Deal with reality - the world as it is - rather than ideality - the world as you would like it to be.
NO mention of LEO, just space and ground stations. In fact actual information seems extremely scarce
Still going to have time of flight delays...
The radio spectrum is going to be a problem — the bandwidth just isn't there for a billion people to use the internet by satellite at the same time. As it is, phone companies are buying up every scrap they can get, and those are just line-of-site towers (so you can re-use the same frequency every 200 km). To put all that into a fleet of globally-visible satellites? I think the business vision statement has out-paced the engineering plan on this one.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity...
So is everybody going to pay the same amount for the service or is this going to be some scam where first-world countries subsidize third-world...again?
https://youtu.be/IrjlhasvJBk
https://youtu.be/wNd2bvLvyk4
Update on censorship go to www.tr.news
I have to wonder what the Chinese Government thinks about projects like this, as it seems like a pretty easy way to bypass their countries firewall restrictions.
How do they stop something like this? Ban the ownership of OneWeb receivers? How would they even enforce that? Would they take even more drastic efforts if the service became popular, like run a signal jammer on that frequency?
I doubt that it would get to the point where they start shooting down "rogue" satellites over their airspace, but I guess that's what Trump wants Space Force for :)
OneWeb would be authorized (by the FCC / ITU) to only operate on certain frequencies, so the CN government could simply monitor for traffic on them and triangulate the location of transmissions.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_satellite#Frequency_Allocation_for_satellite_systems
You could read the Wikipedia article. It has information about the orbits, for example. I'll let you look it up as an exercise. You clearly need it.