QuoteWashington: A US company is planning to build an 'Outernet - a global network of cube satellites broadcasting Internet data to all the people on the planet - for free.
The idea is to offer free Internet access to all people, regardless of location, bypassing filtering or other means of censorship, according to the New York based non-profit organisation, Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF).
MDIF proposes that hundreds of cube satellites be built and launched to create a constellation of sorts in the sky, allowing anyone with a phone or computer to access Internet data sent to the satellites by several hundred ground stations.
The organisation claims that 40 per cent of the people in the world today are still not able to connect to the Internet - and it's not just because of restrictive governments such as North Korea - it's also due to the high cost of bringing service to remote areas, 'phys.org' reported.
An Outernet would allow people from Siberia to parts of the western US to remote islands or villages in Africa to receive the same news as those in New York or Tokyo.
The Outernet would be one-way - data would flow from feeders to the satellites which would broadcast to all below.
MDIF plans to add the ability to transmit from anywhere as well as soon as funds become available.
MDIF has acknowledged that building such a network would not be cheap. Such satellites typically run $100,000 to $300,000 to build and launch.
The timeline for the project calls for deploying the initial cubesats as early as next summer.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/us-company-to-beam-free-wi-fi-to-entire-world-from-space-488183?pfrom=home-topstories
Couple random thoughts -
I question it's speed. No doubt it's start off slow. That can always be improved though.
Tel-coms will hate this, big source of their income in jepardy. Expect resistance.
I wonder if it's blockable? Repressive countries like Iran, North Korea, China, Cuba will loose their ability to block and lock uncensored access.
How will this be paid for? They're not doing it for free. Your access comes with pop ups and advertising?
Security - is there any? Is this a NSA front so all wi-fi goes through them? (LOL!) But seriously, I question privacy.
the cynic arrives
if they do it or are doing it..
what else are they beaming
and can it be blokced
I wonder how something that works in just one way can be useful. :)
Basically a giant floodlight like the new xbox that can monitor every living moving thing it shines on.imho
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=6245.0
:)
Sorry rdunk! I didn't see you had put it in World News. My bad.
Ahh, every internet addicts dream ;D
There is no such thing as "free wi-fi". There is always a catch when something is offered for free. Perhaps it is a disguised "Prism Network" controlled by the NSA?
don't put all your eggs in one basket !!! :)
The free wi-fi version requires obamas face as a screen saver
The paid version will require obama, biden, reid, pelosi, boehner, Mccain all on one screen saver.
Both will have a "vote for button" that automatically votes a thumb up YES! when booting up.
Seriously though, we have the technology in place right now for free interwebz. They use a service called motorola canopy in rural areas where cable doen't run. You have to pay for it but it gets you the internutz. Some guy in colorado beamed free internet to his town years ago.
So with this new fange dangled free inertwebz you just know you will be giving up the ghost to prying eyes and ears deep within some HQ three letter name.
Course Kim Dotcom the torrent king was going to do something similar called cloud internet which is basicaly the same thing at a lower altitude than space.
Hughes has satellite internet but you still may have to have a phone line.
We have canopy in northern Wisconsin and Michigan. They locate repeaters every 7 miles in a circumference and the customer has a small receiver placed on location pointing to a repeater for internet.
Now the moon guys and aliens will have free internet access
We have the free obama phones, now free obama internet
Here is what you will see at the shopping mall obama kiosk
(http://s27.postimg.org/yk37m4keb/obama_1984.jpg)
Evrywhere on the street, store windows, grocery aisles and walmart jumbo trons flashing the message out in the parking lots. Praise the lord and I want my free internetz
Ah, lack of privacy is already a factoid....the illusion is that its *coming*.
To fight this war, we need to think outside the box..
Just maybe, we will finally have what "Al Gore" has been working so hard for. With all of those cube satellites up there, they will block enough sunlight to stop global warming......................and that internet he invented will finally be available to the entire world for free!!
P.S. - Wartoad no prob - someone will probably combine these two OPs anyway.
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Bluebird/cmicsfee.gif)
This represents as much a problem for privacy as listening to the radio, this is "a unidirectional information network", and I don't see how they will be able to give people without money to spend on an Internet connection the possibility to communicate with the satellite.
What I find more interesting (and worrying) is this:
QuoteCitizens from all over the world, through SMS and feature-phone apps, participate in building the information priority list. Users of Outernet's website also make suggestions for content to broadcast; lack of an Internet connection should not prevent anyone from learning about current events, trending topics, and innovative ideas.
The content, apparently, will be chosen by popular choice, so they will probably be transmitting whatever they want, while ignoring the things that they don't like, with the excuse that it was what the people wanted them to transmit.
This looks more like a huge propaganda machine than anything else.
During the Cold War we also had cube satellites. They were part of the SDI program and called Brilliant Pebbles. I always thought there main objective was to destroy enemy ICBM but it never occurred to me that they could be used as communication satellites as well.