Facebook decides space isn't its final frontier after all Just days after it looked like the tech sector's love affair with satellite broadband was getting legs, Facebook has reportedly abandoned its spacefaring. Various reports indicate that the billion-dollar plan to distribute the Facebook Internet.org walled garden via satellite has been abandoned, because The Social NetworkTM …
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I'm appalled... aghast even... Here we were led to believe that soon the whole world would be sharing cat pics, cute doggie videos, pictures of lunch and selfies in order to make the world a better place Now we find out that Zuck won't allow the world to share in all this because there's no profit. Imagine that.
If you wanted to bring 'the internet' to parts of rural India (or wherever), how much would it cost to lay fibre from the nearest large 'well connected' place and then use fibre/cable/mobile/WiFi infrastructure to distribute connectivity to where it would be needed and wanted?
The 'main feed' would be a quick and expensive up-front cost but the local infrastructure could be built gradually over time. Also, the local infrastructure could involve local suppliers and workers responding to local demands and consumer tastes.
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I believe that most of the companies that are considering internet from space are looking at using Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites, which orbit at an altitude of a few hundred miles above the surface. There are companies (such as Hughes) which provide satellite internet via Geosynchronous Earth Orbiting (GEO) satellites. However, each type has their own particular problems.
GEOs, since they're 22,000+ miles up, have a latency of almost a half-second (Time for the signal to go from the user up to the satellite, down to the server, up from the server, and down to the user.). That gets relatively painful for interactive transactions, especially when you realize that other latencies (e.g., server response time, ground transmission time, etc.) add to that. It's certainly better than infinite latency, but vastly inferior to fiber connections. Plus, you need a fair sized dish (18 inches or so?) for the signal to get to the bird and back.
LEOs, since they're only a few hundred miles up, have a much smaller latency. However, because they're so close to the ground, their access circle (the area of ground that they can see) is quite small, perhaps as small as a few hundred miles. Thus, to get adequate coverage, you need a bunch of them orbiting in a pattern. Plus, they usually need the ability to link signals to/from each other so that they have access to a ground access point connection (well, besides the one to the user). Getting 100 or so satellites up, and keeping them in the appropriate orbits, is not cheap nor easy. Obviously, it can be done (e.g., Iridium), but doing so very well may bankrupt the company trying to do it, unless they have an iron-clad business model.
Dave
P.S. I'll get my coat. It's the one with the Brilliant Pebbles in the pocket.
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