47,000 satellites: Battle of billionaires heats up, how they're going to affect you

Bezos, Branson and Musk in intense race to make internet coverage cheaper, wider

Published: January 15, 2020 15:45 Jay Hilotin, Senior Web News Editor

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leos 01 — SATELLITE SWEEPTAKES. The space-age sweepstakes involves a fascinating, yet breathtakingly, simple idea: knit the world closer together by providing internet access to every nook and cranny, especially in rural and poorer areas. The solution: Use satellites as cell sites. But it’s a complex, challenging system, due to previous attempts that failed commercially. Image Credit: File

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Musk, Bezos and Branson — THE RACE IS ON: There space race is on between the world’s leading billionaires, with a coterie of name-plate companies backing them. It’s Elon Musk vs Jeff Bezos vs Richard Branson. Image Credit: File

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Falcon 9 rocket 0001 — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket inside a hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. With 180 satellites already in space, SpaceX plans to launch its next group of "Starlink" satellites aboard Falcon 9 as soon as Monday, January 20, 2020. Image Credit: NASA / Kim Shiflett

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OneWeb has a grand vision — a 700-satellite network that flies 1,200km above the ground to cover the whole world with WiFi signal, including the half of the planet currently without connectivity. With its high throughput — at >1tbps across the constellation — and global coverage, OneWeb promises to transform the lives of those who are currently "underserved", or simply un-served, by web access. Image Credit: OneWeb

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FASTER CONNECTIONS: Most of the current communications satellites are in a geostationary equatorial orbit (altitude: about 36,000 km). A constellation of smaller satellites at low-Earth orbit would make them better positioned to quickly receive and transmit data, as signals can travel more rapidly through the vacuum of space than through fiber-optic cables. LEO satellites could then potentially rival or possibly exceed the fastest ground-based networks. Image Credit: File

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47,000 satellites: Battle of billionaires heats up, how they're going to affect you

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47,000 satellites: Battle of billionaires heats up, how they're going to affect you

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