7 years ago
5
Elon Musk wants to cover the world with internet from space
The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, is planning to put more than 4,000 satellites in orbit in order to blanket the Earth with internet access. SpaceX, the privateer space company led by Musk, is requesting permission from the US government to operate a massive network of 4,425 satellites - plus “in-orbit spares” - to provide high-speed, global internet coverage. Documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday propose an initial launch of 800 satellites to create an orbiting digital communications array to cover the US, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Continue Reading
https://www.theguardian.com
Join the Discussion
How will they overcome the latency problem?
Many small satellites in low-earth orbit, so the latency is to be ~25-35msecs, as opposed to the ~600msecs of current satellite systems. See the Ars related link for more.
That's much better than current satellite-based systems, but totally unacceptable for gamers. I don't see sat-based systems being viable on a large scale any time in the near future. But, I've been wrong before. Once.
Elon Musk's plan to blanket the planet with internet using one weird trick! Cable companies hate him!
Definitely much better click-baity-ness with your title!