Techdirt Podcast Episode 5: The Internet From Space!
from the not-so-crazy dept
This week's episode of Techdirt Podcast is all about thinking outside the box (and the atmosphere) on the subjects of broadband and global connectivity. There have been many attempts to build practical satellite-based internet access over the years, and though so far they have all been multibillion-dollar failures, there's still a huge amount of potential in the concept — not to mention other innovative concepts, like internet from balloons, blimps or floating platforms. This week, Mike, Hersh and Dennis discuss the past and future of such ideas, and the revolutionary disruptions that they could usher in.
If you still haven't subscribed, you should follow us on Soundcloud, subscribe via iTunes, or simply plug the RSS feed into your favorite podcatcher app (we have a few recommendations). Of course, you can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.
If you've already subscribed, please note: we've moved our podcast RSS feed to a new location — techdirt.com/podcast.xml — which will be its permanent home going forward. The old RSS feed will continue to work indefinitely, but the new address (which acts as a redirect) safeguards against disruption from any future changes to our podcast hosting setup.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: balloons, cubesats, internet, internet access, nano satellites, nanosats, net neutrality, satellites, space
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
mouth breathing troglodytes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
. do they float above atmospheric events? (ie: are they stationary enough?)
. do they offer better latency than satellites? (for regular surfing latency doesn't matter but what about when it does?)
. how reliable and impervious to natural wear they would be compared to satellites?
I obviously don't have the knowledge to answer those but from my relatively ignorant perspective it doesn't seem like cables will get any less attractive. Sure it may help those hard to access areas but that's it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Given those two factors, I can definitely think of lots of situations where something like this would be an attractive option, and a prominent component of a broadband infrastructure.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]