WIFI FOR THE WORLD FROM OUTER SPACE (Outernet)

[Birdman]

I see this changing the future dramatically. Sure it's going to be slower then balls, and nobody with the money for ISP's are going to use it. But think about people without the money for it. 

 

Also it's possible that in the not so distant future (10 - 15 years or so) the internet speeds will increase. Not by any means ignoring the fact that ISP's internet will get stronger as well (especially with Fiber) however, I see eventually in the far future, fiber being global, and people not having access to a computer or the internet will no longer be an issue. 

 

 

Also fuck you for polluting outer space even more. 

[dalekphalm]

Guys, check this link: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/nasa-internet-laser/

and this one, too http://rt.com/usa/nasa-moon-laser-internet-660/

Not impossible

Erm did you read the original article?

 

This is NOT the same thing at all. In the articles you posted, NASA is sending extremely fast data streams via LASER!!! Which is point-to-point and line-of-sight. Granted both Laser and Radio travel at the speed of light, but laser has the capability of including much more dense data-streams over long distances.

 

Certainly a global orbital wifi network is possible, but it's going to be SUPER slow. Not the data rate necessarily, but the latency will be awful. It'll be crap for online gaming, and it'll be "noticeable" with video communications. Also there's no way it'll be free, unless they're publicly funded by taxes (Which won't happen, since this is a multi-national global network, so who's going to fund them?). They could definitely do it for cheap if they got a lot of subscribers, even at say $20 a month (I'd pay $20 a month for global shitty wifi access that I can use no matter where I am, that'd be sweet, even if the speeds were bad).

 

With that in mind, in the future, something like this will definitely be possible. I think it's inevitable that a large-scale, globally accessible wireless access is eventually deployed. But fixed-wired connections will still be the main source of internet. Fiber optics right now allow insanely fast speeds, and that technology is only improving all the time. Fiber is the future.

[martinrox1568]

Not gonna happen. I don't doubt the speed, but the latency. It has to go from earth to a freaking SATELLITE!!

[cDNA]

Cool idea but the space around earth is already extremely filled with satelites (well depending on the altitude) but when the said "hundreds of satelite it was dead for me, they will never get the clearance to put hundreds of satelites at the same height (assuming they all work from the same distance)

[Chevaishr]

what about project loon 

[1funnygame]

they did research to show that wifi kills sperm 0.0 and that only what they tested if it can do that and cause cancer i wonder what else it does 0.0

not exactly thrilled