OpenStack 02/27/2014 (a.m.)

• New York company says it can beam free OUTERNET Wi-fi to every person on Earth | Mail Online

  Tags: internet, internet-access, Outernet, satellite broadband

  • • An ambitious project known as Outernet is aiming to launch hundreds of miniature satellites into low Earth orbit by June 2015
      
    • Each satellite will broadcast the Internet to phones and computers giving billions of people across the globe free online access
    • Citizens of countries like China and North Korea that have censored online activity could be given free and unrestricted cyberspace
    • 'There's really nothing that is technically impossible to this'

  • You might think you have to pay through the nose at the moment to access the Internet.

    But one ambitious organisation called the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) is planning to turn the age of online computing on its head by giving free web access to every person on Earth.

    Known as Outernet, MDIF plans to launch hundreds of satellites into orbit by 2015.

    And they say the project could provide unrestricted Internet access to countries where their web access is censored, including China and North Korea.

  • Using something known as datacasting technology, which involves sending data over wide radio waves, the New York-based company says they'll be able to broadcast the Internet around the world.

    The group is hoping to raise tens of millions of dollars in donations to get the project on the road.

  • The company's plan is to launch hundreds of low-cost miniature satellites, known as cubesats, into low Earth orbit.
    

    Here, each satellite will receive data from a network of ground stations across the globe.

  • THE OUTERNET PROJECT TIMELINE
    

    By June of this year the Outernet project aims to begin deploying prototype satellites to test their technology

    In September 2014 they will make a request to NASA to test their technology on the International Space Station

    By early 2015 they intend to begin manufacturing and launching their satellites

    And in June 2015 the company says they will begin broadcasting the Outernet from space

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