Ask anyone how it will happen that Internet access comes to most people in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and the answer is almost certainly going to be “mobile access,” since mobile adoption for voice and text messaging in January 2014 already had reached 72 percent in South Asia, 109 percent in Southeast Asia and 94 percent in Oceania.
But there are potentially blockbuster new developments. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has gotten a $1 billion investment from Google to create a huge fleet of new low earth orbit satellites intended to provider Internet access across the globe.
Only days before, WorldVu Satellites announced funding from Virgin Group and Qualcomm for a proposed global satellite internet company also focusing on potential users in developing countries that cannot be reached by fixed or mobile networks, as well as to supply Internet access to flying aircraft.
The proposed network will cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, backers believe.
WorldVu Satellites founder Greg Wyler said. Wyler, formerly of satellite firm O3b, has been touting this idea for some time.
Virgin Group and Qualcomm also are investors in the WorldVu “OneWeb Ltd.” service, which hopes to launch a constellation of 648 satellites. Investor Richard Branson thinks the total could eventually be higher than that. Branson also says voice service will be part of the core service.
Some might note that others have tried in the past, without much success, to create such networks based on huge fleets of low earth orbit satellites.
But among the new contenders is Elon Musk, who wants to shake up the business in the same way he wants to shake up the auto business, satellite launch business, the Hyperloop transportation system and SolarCity, the retail solar power business.
Some might be skeptical that the new venture will succeed at one of its potential business models, namely providing retail Internet access to billions of people globally. Iridium and Teledesic, other touted LEO satellite networks, did not get off the ground, or survive.
Musk says the entire fleet might include up to 4,000 satellites. He believes the satellite system could start providing data services by 2020, though the full constellation could be in place by 2030, possibly. The cost of the venture could amount to $10 billion or more, Musk said.
Separately, WorldVu Satellites Ltd. has raised funding from Virgin Group and Qualcomm for a proposed global satellite internet company focusing on potential users in developing countries that cannot be reached by fixed or mobile networks, as well as to supply Internet access to flying aircraft.
The proposed network will cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, backers believe.
WorldVu Satellites founder Greg Wyler said. Wyler, formerly of satellite firm O3b, has been touting this idea for some time.
Virgin Group and Qualcomm are investors in the WorldVu “OneWeb Ltd.” service, which hopes to launch a constellation of 648 satellites. Investor Richard Branson thinks the total could eventually be higher than that. Branson also says voice service will be part of the core service.
Lower cost is touted as a key enabler.
Virgin Galactic’s “LauncherOne” program will be used to make frequent satellite launches at lower cost. Other launch partners might be added, the press release announcing the venture hints.
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The first launches are supposed to happen in early 2017. OneWeb controls a block of radio spectrum that it will use for the Internet service, but has to begin deploying the network to retain use of the frequencies, a typical requirement for spectrum grantees.
OneWeb’s satellites will weigh about 285 pounds and operate in a low-earth orbit about 750 miles above the planet’s surface. That has significant positive implications for potential bandwidth and latency performance, allowing much-lower latency than possible for geosynchronous satellites.
The deployment challenges will be significant for such a large fleet, but backers hope lower satellite and launch costs will help the venture provide consumer Internet access at far-lower prices than possible in the past.
Should both fleets be built and create sustainable business models, the task of getting billions of people Internet access for the first time will become a reality. That has implications for other existing satellite providers, as well as for mobile service providers providing Internet access.
So there is at least a reasonable possibility that one or more brand new mobile internet access networks could be commercially deployed in several years. What that means for mobile service providers is the issue.
For that reason, satellite Internet access will be a new content track at Spectrum Futures 2015.
