
Google Invests in Satellites to Spread Internet Access - rememberlenny
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/google-invests-in-satellites-to-spread-internet-access-1401666287-lMyQjAxMTA0MDAwMTEwNDEyWj
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gregpilling
I have to wonder if they will be able to provide uncensored service to parts
of the planet that are not able to get it now. China has their firewall, and
other governments have tried restricting the internet as well. Satellites over
head can get around the restrictions.

This would bring the internet not only to rural areas, but also oppressed
areas.

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hkmurakami
Wouldn't whatever spectrum you use to communicate with satellites be governed
by the country's government much like how wireless spectra are owned by
countries? In which case, I don't think you'd be able to subterfuge like that.

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Scoundreller
Iridium and other satellite providers somehow managed to get around this. I
think the only places they can't provide service is embargoed countries (and
that's more of a "source" country rather than a "destination" country issue).

Further research suggests that the ITU-R is responsible for this, likely under
some type of treaty.

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Tarang
The equipment used to communicate with the satellites is usually heavily
regulated. For example in India you can't bring in items that communicate via
a Satellite without a permit.

In Kenya before they changed the law, VSAT terminals were heavily regulated.
They had equipment that could detect if you had an unauthorized installation
and you could get under heavy fines.

Bottom line you can't regulate whether you can or can't get the signal, but
you can regulate the domestic equipment required to communicate.

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rdl
I started/ran a commercial satellite provider (in war zones) for a while last
decade. The big transition just happening then (but not in my region, due to a
rocket blowing up during launch) was Ku -> Ka band.

Ku has big enough beams (thus, less freq re-use) and low enough bandwidth (due
to cost of space segment) that it really wasn't economic for "regular"
Internet for people -- hundreds or thousands of dollars for a high-latency
connection with other performance characteristics of the worst DSL.

Ka is an order of magnitude or more better (although more subject to rain
fade); smaller and cheaper equipment, too.

I was kind of sad Google went with "project loon", which seems kind of..loony
to me..rather than UAVs, tethered aerostats, or LEO constellations. It looks
like they're not _just_ doing loon.

I want to figure out how a Gerald Bull space cannon or RAMAC (10-50k G force
launch of 1m diameter satellites, for $100/pound) could be used to build an
LEO constellation.

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noobermin
I'm not sure if this is related, but my father told me about something
similar. My father is from and lives now in Palau [1], and the typical
internet connection there has a download speed of something like 20 kbps. My
dad said something about a company deploying satellites seeking to service
unconnected or poorly connected regions, and Palau wanted in.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau)

~~~
Scoundreller
Yikes,

An email only dialup account in Palau is $15/month. Unlimited dialup is
$99.95.

64kbps DSL is $199.95 per month, going up to $759.95 for 320kbps...

I just wish they would give high-speeds at the last mile and ship in multi-TB
drives for local access, while rate-limiting international (satellite uplink)
access based on how much one pays.

edit: Palau internet access rate card:
[http://www.palaunet.com/view_pdf_file.aspx?field1=Palaunet%2...](http://www.palaunet.com/view_pdf_file.aspx?field1=Palaunet%20service%20rates%20for%20website.pdf)

~~~
noobermin
You witness what happens when there is only one ISP with no competition (PNCC
provides palaunet). A little example at a different scale of what could happen
if comcast and time warner were to merge :)

>I just wish they would give high-speeds at the last mile and ship in multi-TB
drives for local access, while rate-limiting international (satellite uplink)
access based on how much one pays.

This idea has been around so long but no one has tried to actually tried to do
something like this. Moreover, there isn't a lot of "local access" that I know
since there arent't many websites on the island to begin with. Something like
a local email service would make sense; palaunet's email service is so bad
that people rather use services here in the US like gmail.

The funny thing is that PNCC and the Palau government had a chance to tap into
AAG[1] when it was laid in the 2000s but Palau opted out of it because they
thought it wasn't worth the investment. What a mistake...

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAG_%28cable_system%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAG_%28cable_system%29)

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jader201
Admittedly, I scanned the article, but this article seems mostly business
speak. I was more curious behind the technical details, specifically potential
speeds and overcoming limitations with satellite internet.

In other words, can this someday compete with (or even eliminate the need for)
current broadband infrastructure?

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XorNot
No. Speed of light ensures this will never happen.

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avz
This won't replace broadband, but for a different reason.

The article suggests the satellites would operate from LEO orbit which
generally means a few hundreds to 2,000km above the planet. This is less than
10ms even accounting for ionospheric effects.

Bandwidth would be a huge problem, though.

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XorNot
So would LOS. LEO sucks because you definitely aren't going to be using a
dish, doubly so if you want continuous connections. At least not on any large
scale.

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lsaferite
Well, I remember reading about teledesic, which this seems to be under a new
name, and the idea was you would always have 3+ sats in your sky at once.

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cloudwizard
Their driverless car needs Internet to work. This will let you drive anywhere.

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disputin
And connect their robots to Viki.

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washedup
I wonder where and how they are putting together a team to design and build
the hardware and coordinate with launch companies. This will be a huge
contract for whichever company wins the launch bid.

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higherpurpose
I hope they will use laser technology, which can probably go up to 1 Gbps if
they're using cutting edge technology. Although that can probably work only
for residences, so if they want it for self-driving cars they'll also need
radio-based Internet.

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wmf
Doesn't punching through 60 miles of atmosphere require dangerously high
power?

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jacquesm
Either that, or very good antennae.

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Geee
Insects have antennae. Radio devices have antennas.

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jacquesm
Thank you! Even after 37 years of English there is still room for improvement.

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known
I think Google should invest in creating more
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantons_of_Switzerland](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantons_of_Switzerland)
in the world

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ehosca
iridium lives!

~~~
lsaferite
More like: Teledesic lives.

