Washington - For many, it's been a years-long pipe dream. Ultra-fast,
lag-free Internet that comes to your PC or smartphone via satellite instead of
a wire into your home.
Facebook, Google and even SpaceX have all explored the
idea, partly in hopes of selling broadband access to a growing market with
enormous potential the developing world.
But now, a former Googler and friend of Elon Musk has beaten
them all to the punch, becoming the first to receive permission to actually
build a next-generation satellite internet service that targets US customers.
If it takes off, the project could benefit Americans
nationwide by providing broadband anywhere in the United States, particularly in
rural areas where it can be difficult to provide fast Internet connections
using traditional ground-based cables.
Read also: Faster, cheaper internet to be rolled out
At the heart of Greg Wyler's new network are a fleet of 720
satellites, all orbiting the earth at an altitude of roughly 745 miles? The
first satellites would launch next year, and service could start as early as
2019. The federal regulators voted to give Wyler and his company, OneWeb,
approval to use the airwaves that will beam the Internet down to earth.
Satellite Internet services are available now. But today's
technology is slow, expensive and largely out-of-reach for individual
consumers. For a connection barely fast enough to support Netflix, users can
spend up to $200 a day - making it realistic only for corporate customers or,
in some cases, relief workers responding to natural disasters where
connectivity is a must.
By contrast, the next generation of satellite Internet
services promises to reduce lag by bringing the satellites closer to earth. By
placing them in low-earth orbit instead of geostationary orbit, Internet data
will spend less time in transit - leading to a smoother, faster Internet
experience.
OneWeb may have been the first to apply for FCC approval,
but it wasn't the last - and the agency expects to greenlight more projects,
said Chairman Ajit Pai.
"It is our hope that in the future years to come, Americans
will be able to use these networks when they're in the sky to make their own
destiny," he said.
In 2007, Wyler tested the concept by launching a similar
satellite network aimed at business customers. That venture, known as O3b
Networks, now has 12 satellites in medium orbit, about 5,000 miles high. The
company boasts that they are capable of providing speeds of 1 Gbps as fast as
Google Fiber with less lag than what you'd see with just a handful of
satellites placed higher up.
But reducing lag at lower orbits comes with a tradeoff: You
need more satellites. At low-earth orbit, the satellites are whipping around
the globe rather than permanently pointing at one spot, as a geostationary
satellite would. And that's why OneWeb's new broadband project is planning for
hundreds of satellites.
SpaceX, meanwhile, has even more ambitious plans for 4 400
satellites in low-earth orbit. It, along with 10 other entities, submitted
plans to the FCC last year for approval. The FCC said that if those
companies also receive approval, the government will apply exactly the same
expectations to them as it is to OneWeb.