Forget the Internet - soon there will be the OUTERNET: Company plans to beam free Wi-fi to every per

I really do not foresee this happening. First of all WIFI is a two way street allowing both downloading and uploading. How on earth (literally) are you going to upload data to a satellite using your WIFI antenna you already have when these signals hardly propagate a few hundred feet inside your own house to your router you have now? Even with parabolic dish antennas on the satellite there is no way your puny signal is going to be picked up by it.

Second, WIFI has regulatory limitations set by the FCC enforcing the transmission to a specified power level. That sort of power level, albeit the same as what is in your router now; would in no way make the distance from a satellite down to earth and into your computer. Even assuming there were no FCC or other agency at play regulating the space communications the idea of running high power back to earth using the same WIFI frequencies we already use now is just asking for spectrum bottlenecking.
Even if they were able to provide a powerful enough signal to get back on earth with all other issues aside there is still the issue of the user being able to upload back to the bird in the sky unless the soul purpose is *only* to be able to download and browse data, and how on earth would that work when you can not request a URL or anything else (remember no upload..)?

Another thing that bothers me are the people I see here and ones who have replied on other sites talking about this is the radiation exposure from the signal being beamed down. Anyone that does 5 minutes of research will realize those frequencies are non-ionizing radiation and never proven by a scientifically peer reviewed study to cause health problems. In fact we already have tons of satellites in the sky beaming down ultra/extremely high frequency data to earth at much greater power than something like this would even require and I don't see that causing everyone cancer and tumors, at least no more so than before we had them floating around above our planet.

Thirdly, there is a very strong inverse square law proponent in effect here which means at that distance the relative radiation received by both your computing devices and your own body would be so weak you would only have to worry about the other things around your house causing you high RF exposure, not that satellite in the sky.
Remember just because it is called the big scary word "radiation" does not mean anything. Your flashlight radiates light for example.
Just my two cents.

reply to post by darklife


I think it would require a specialized modem and antenna to connect to it... much the same as you need with ISPs that provide wifi internet service in rural areas.

These will be low earth orbit satellites, so there would be multiple "birds" in the sky at the same time. Your connection would jump from one satellite to the next as they flew into and out of range.

For signal strength, the demands would be much lower since the satellites are closer. I used to have Starband internet that connected to a geostationary satellite 22,000 miles up. The antenna had to be precisely tuned, but other than that, the signal and bandwidth was excellent both ways.

reply to post by soficrow


They should make a Kickstarter account for it.

In fact...doing the math...current statistics show the world pop. at 7.1 billion with 39% of that using the internet...that being 2.769 BILLION people....and these guys need to raise 'hundreds of millions of dollars'....so let's say $750 Million...that's just 0.27c per internet user. Would you pay that? I would if it guaranteed the entire world free internet for the future of mankind. Jeez...27 cents ain't much.

In fact....just 0.50c per user nets the kickstarter account $1.385B....I reckon that could well do the job.

If they can make it work someone will pit an end to it one way or another. Most likely it will be the US government using national security as as reason or some other kind of BS story. If something is made and it could cause companies to loose money we all know what happens.

Isnt that why Nickola Tesla had his funding pulled? He wanted to make his ideas put to use for the good of everyone and wanted them to be free for people to use, and the people who were backing him realized they Wouldn't be making massive money they pretty much told him to beat it.

Who will "own" this?
Some branch office of the NSA perhaps?

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Good make those companys go bankrupt. What is wrong with running your car off of water?

We do not need all these internet providers, just like we do not need gas and oil, there are many Many MANY other fuels out there that are better, cleaner and more abondant the Oil.

The fossil fuel age is coming to an end just like the bronze age did.

Good on this company!

reply to post by JHumm


Very good point... But you have to remember that 1940 was nothing like the present. What I mean by that is, Humanity is even more connected now then it ever has. People all around the world are fighting for their rights, they are revolting against oppressive governments with the help of the internet. If this actually gets implemented I can assure you that the people in the world would support it as most people hate corporations and their monopolies.

The term "Honeypot" comes to mind.

Free bandwidth? Legit? uhuh.

In computer terminology, a honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect, or, in some manner, counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally, a honeypot consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network, but is actually isolated and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource of value to attackers. This is similar to the police baiting a criminal and then conducting undercover surveillance.

Tooootally legit.

I am NOT sharing my bandwidth with 7 billion people!!!

My connection is slow enough as it is!!!

AfterInfinity
Free global internet access would mean the end of a lot of major companies. You might as well enable cars to run on water at 200 miles to the quart.

edit on 17-2-2014 by AfterInfinity because: (no reason given)

Awwep didums.

Thats progress for you.

Guess they neef to find a new market.


Its called free market and if tecnology drives prices to 0 then o well.


What i dont want to see if companyd paying off goverments to restrict this.

I don't even want to begin to imagine how slow it would be.

reply to post by ChesterJohn


Not really its there buisness.

If they want to offer there product for free then thats there choice,

Not see why congress or over buisness should interfer.

reply to post by LightAssassin


The source article said these guys need to "raise tens of millions of dollars in donations to get the project on the road" - not hundreds of millions. Doable methinks.

reply to post by soficrow


Given how little even a BILLION dollars would mean in donations by every internet user (0.35-0.40c one off donation)....I think this project and even the manufacture process is quite achievable. I just don't think it will be allowed to happen while every western government takes 'donations' from those parties this action would affect.

Here's hoping!!!

My initial reaction to reading this is it will somehow be a means of tighter control and tracking of every human individual that can be reached with this. I wish it would be as cool as it could be though.

reply to post by LightAssassin


I'm hoping too. Just this once, maybe "free trade" really will be, and it will work for the little guy.

Not a good idea imo. With no competition comes too much control (they call it "security features").

Keep it available from as many sources as possible to make the services competitive and offering consumers a right to choose based on how the service works and costs.

reply to post by nerbot


I disagree....it would be unadulterated...unregulated....uncontrolled by any corporation. Just free wireless like businesses already offer when you go into their store....only they set limits.

Admittedly....I have that many Wifi locations stored in my phone (It's amazing how many businesses forget to secure their Wifi) that I get almost free wifi access all around Adelaide.

And capitalism allows me to control the market I currently work in to make it as rewarding and profitable as possible....and I don't feel bad about it because the market, and capitalism, allows it. We manipulate the market with our competitor to force prices higher for our consumers. Markets can be manipulated.....Free markets can't. What you perceive as competition is merely an agreed time period with our competitor to allow them to get back part of the market share while we are charging higher prices...making more profit from our loyal customers until such a time as the market share has balanced out....then our competitor raises his prices back up and we all make money, or we'll reduce our prices...but our margins were already very good so we're still making money.

And if a new company enters the market....we use the accumulated profit to price them out of the market. Capitalism sucks.

Free? In this world? HA! You've gotta be dreaming. I wouldn't hold my breath that this is ever realized anything soon. Not in our current social and economic climate.

When will people learn there is no such thing as free.

It is going to cost money one way or the other.

Those ground stations will be using lots of this thing called 'electricity'.

Those ground stations has those things called satellite uplinks that cost m-o-n-e-y.

They are taking 'donations' eh?

meh