By now it's kind of hard to believe, even sort of embarrassing.
About 57% of the world
population is offline —
mostly because of unavailable Internet in poor or rural countries. The United Nations
set a goal of getting
that number down to 50% by the end of 2020.
But the U.N. now admits, that's not going to happen.
In fact, overall Internet access
growth is expected to dip by .5% this year.
For advocates
like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, that's bad news. His goal of "connecting
everyone" via Internet is "one of the fundamental challenges
of our generation," he said. Internet access, he believes, could end
extreme poverty.
One problem is cost. Or, as the U.N. puts it: "In many of
the world's poorest countries, where broadband could potentially have the
greatest benefit in terms of bridging development gaps, even basic broadband
service remains prohibitively expensive."
Another
hurdle: Many nations include huge wilderness areas where hard-wire delivery
systems like landlines and towers don't exist.
Some say the
solution consists of just two words: Look up.
Google,
Facebook, SpaceX and other outfits plan to beam the Internet from either
low-orbiting satellites or high-flying drones and balloons.
Here's a quick
rundown of four big players:
OneWeb
What: A company called
OneWeb aims to launch
a more than 600 tiny satellites designed to beam high-speed Internet down to
Earth.
Where: The satellites will orbit about 750
miles high. That's much closer to Earth than current Internet providing
satellites, which are now 22,000 miles away. That shorter distance will speed
up delivery of the signal.
Who's behind it: OneWeb is led by Greg Wyler and backed
by Virgin Galactic businessman Richard Branson. "It could dramatically
help close the wealth gap," Branson
told CNN.
How much: Initial estimates run from $1.5 billion
to $2 billion, Wyler told CNN.
When: The service is expected to begin by
2019.
SpaceX
What: SpaceX, which already serves the International
Space Station, plans to put 4,000 small, low-cost, disposable satellites into
orbit.
Where: Like OneWeb, SpaceX's satellites would
orbit about 750 miles above the Earth to allow for faster service.
Who's behind it: SpaceX CEO and PayPal co-founder Elon
Musk told
Motherboard in July he
thinks "the long-term potential of it is pretty great." The
"communications technology will be substantially more advanced" than
existing satellite Internet projects, Musk said.
How much: In January, Google and Fidelity provided $1
billion to
fund the project.
When: Testing of the technology is expected to
begin in 2016.
Google's Project Loon
What: Solar powered balloons would transmit
Internet signals to ground stations, homes, workplaces or directly to personal
devices.
Where: Google says they
would float above commercial airplanes, between 60,000 and and 90,000 feet up —
all around the world. Each balloon would operate for about 100 days at a time.
How many: Google is scaling up to be able to launch
dozens -- or even thousands -- of balloons, said project lead Mike Cassidy.
How much: Google told The Verge each balloon would cost "tens
of thousands of dollars," which is much cheaper than communication
satellites.
When: Testing is going on now.
Facebook's Aquila
What: Facebook has built an unmanned, Internet-broadcasting
airplane called Aquila -- latin
for eagle. It's covered by solar cells and has a huge wingspan of 140 feet --
about the same as a Boeing 737 airliner. It's designed to fly for three months at a time at an altitude of 60,000 feet,
said lead engineer Andy Cox. It will use lasers to deliver high-speed Internet
within a 50-mile radius on the
ground below.
When: "Over the coming months, we will test
these systems in the real world and continue refining them so we can turn their
promise into reality," wrote Facebook's
Zuckerberg.
How much: Unknown
Adding huge
"constellations" of tiny satellites to the already-crowded space
around Earth won't be easy. For example, companies that operate satellites that
are located far away -- 22,000 miles out -- fear that -- under certain
circumstances -- closer, low-Earth-orbit satellites may interfere with their
electronic signals, according to SpaceNews.
A broader, long-term
industry question: How will companies be able to manufacture thousands of
satellites quickly and cheaply? OneWeb has hired French-based Airbus to build 900 satellites at a rate of four per day. Most
will be built in the U.S., according to Airbus.
"They need to bring the sort of large-scale assembly line
processes and efficiencies found in the automotive world to space, and
that's a really new thing for us," said satellite industry expert Brian
Weeden, technical adviser for Secure World Foundation.
But if everything
works out as planned, it won't be long before the World Wide Web will truly
live up to its name.
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