Broadcasting the internet from space

cubesat

Company plans to beam free Wi-fi to every person on Earth from space
[Via MacDailyNews]

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“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,” The Daily Mail reports.

“Known as Outernet, MDIF plans to launch hundreds of satellites into orbit by 2015,” The Daily Mail reports. “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 Daily Mail reports. “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. Using a technique known as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multitasking, which is the sharing of data between users on a network, Outernet will beam information to users. Much like how you receive a signal on your television and flick through channels, Outernet will broadcast the Internet to you and allow you to flick through certain websites.”

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This is not a fully two-way communication system but simply a one-way datacasting of websites from the internet.

Outernet will use a lot of small cubesats to provide the signals that can be picked up around the world. The choice of data to be sent will be determined by the people of the world through texts and apps.

The technology makes it very hard for national-level control of internet data. If the people of the world want to get the BBC unfiltered, it will be able to.

But it can also send stuff the the Khan Academy course, farm prices, disaster relied information.

All by having a smartphone. For free.

Cool. If it is true. The link goes back to the Daily Mail, which is almost aways wrong. 

I guess we shall have to wait and see.