A US company is planning to build an ‘Outernet’ — a global network of cube
satellites broadcasting internet service to all the people on the earth for
free. The idea is to provide free internet access to all people, regardless of
location, bypassing filtering or other means of censorship, according to the
New York based non-profit organization, Media Development Investment Fund
(MDIF).
MDIF proposes that hundreds of cube satellites will be
built and launched to create a constellation of sorts in the sky, allowing
anyone with a phone or computer to access Internet data sent to the satellites
via several hundred ground stations. The organization adds that 40 percent of the world's population
is still not able to connect to the Internet because of high cost.
The Project ‘Outernet’
would allow people from Siberia to parts of
the western US to remote islands or villages in Africa to receive the same news
as those in New York or Tokyo. The ‘Outernet’ will allow data to flow from
feeders to the satellites and broadcast to everyone on earth. MDIF plans to add the ability to transmit from anywhere
as well as soon as funds become available.
MDIF has acknowledged that building such a network would
not be cheap. Such satellites typically
require $100,000 to $300,000 to build and launch. The timeline for
the project calls for deploying the initial cubesats as early as next summer.
The organization aims to send a
constellation of satellites in space that would broadcast data, received in a
continuous loop until new fresh data turns up. Broadcasting of the data will be
done using already accepted international standards such as UDP-based Wi-Fi
multicasting, DVB, and Digital Radio Mondiale.