If rumors are correct, it seems that Google’s plans for worldwide internet access are moving right along. Many of you have already heard about Project Loon and the plan to launch balloons covering the globe beaming internet to all the under-served areas. This would be a new exciting layer.
As per the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to launch roughly 180 “small, high capacity” low earth orbit satellites. These satellites would thus allow internet access to the world. Most people start thinking land access however, we’re hoping that “worldwide access” can also be translated to the 71% of the globe covered by water.
Yeah, yeah, yeah… There is a lot of peace in being able to cut the cord and head to sea BUT when you need it, the current systems are expensive. We haven’t gotten the impression that Google’s plans for worldwide internet access will come with high expense. Some even speculate it would be free.
Just think… If you have data access, you would then be able to utilize voice capacity. No knowledge of planned data throughput as of yet!
The associated costs for Google are targeted in the range or $1 to $3 billion.
Wonder whether the current LEO Satellites of Iridium could simply put in play to support the system and give a huge boost to the lead time of new satellites. You’d think there would be existing free capacity on the expensive supposedly underutilized current system.
Wow – there’s a lot of “stuff” flying around up there! It’s amazing how all of that flying metal is coordinated so that it doesn’t interfere with each other.
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