Techdirt Podcast Episode 5: The Internet From Space!
from the not-so-crazy dept
This week’s episode of Techdirt Podcast is all about thinking outside the box (and the atmosphere) on the subjects of broadband and global connectivity. There have been many attempts to build practical satellite-based internet access over the years, and though so far they have all been multibillion-dollar failures, there’s still a huge amount of potential in the concept — not to mention other innovative concepts, like internet from balloons, blimps or floating platforms. This week, Mike, Hersh and Dennis discuss the past and future of such ideas, and the revolutionary disruptions that they could usher in.
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Filed Under: balloons, cubesats, internet, internet access, nano satellites, nanosats, net neutrality, satellites, space
Comments on “Techdirt Podcast Episode 5: The Internet From Space!”
mouth breathing troglodytes
‘pod’ cast, really?
Hmmm, this idea of putting them in balloons may be slightly better but this requires looking at a few points such as:
. do they float above atmospheric events? (ie: are they stationary enough?)
. do they offer better latency than satellites? (for regular surfing latency doesn’t matter but what about when it does?)
. how reliable and impervious to natural wear they would be compared to satellites?
I obviously don’t have the knowledge to answer those but from my relatively ignorant perspective it doesn’t seem like cables will get any less attractive. Sure it may help those hard to access areas but that’s it.
Re: Re:
it’s not so much that it will be in any way better than cables, but there are two main factors: 1) it could conceivably become easier and cheaper than laying cables and 2) it could be less susceptible to government interference, censorship, etc.
Given those two factors, I can definitely think of lots of situations where something like this would be an attractive option, and a prominent component of a broadband infrastructure.