Everyone wants faster internet.
Over the last 15 years, the capabilities of fixed line internet alone
have increased by around 50,000%.
Right now, the fastest non-wired internet available is 4G
your phone probably already has this.
The next big thing is 5G, which everyone is very excited about.
And understandably - it represents a hefty upgrade in speed,
achieved by using much higher radio frequencies to transfer data.
Bottom line - more data at faster speeds.
But it’s not all good news.
The nature of using these higher frequencies means that
5G comes with a distribution problem.
You know how if you hear music in the distance, from a festival or something,
most of what you can make out is just a low-pitched rumble,
or a pounding bass drum?
That’s because low frequencies travel further than high frequencies,
and that’s also true of our 4 and 5G signals.
So while higher frequencies offer us numerous improvements,
they also mean we need more cell towers to achieve the same coverage we have now.
Oh, and the old towers don’t support 5G, so they’ll need to be replaced.
This all means that a huge infrastructure investment will be needed
to offer coverage to rural areas.
Realistically that’s money that companies just aren’t going to spend.
This disparity between internet speeds in urban and rural areas
is already a big problem, and 5G only serves to amplify that imbalance.
What we really need is a global alternative,
capable of providing high speed internet access
across the entire planet.
But the logistics of a project that huge make it seem like
an over-ambitious futuristic pipe dream
that no one is going to want to take on.
Except...
Who do we know who loves ambitious futuristic pipe dreams?
That’s right - enter Elon Musk.
His proposed solution is Starlink -
a SpaceX operated network of 12,000 satellites which would provide
high-performance Internet access
anywhere in the world, to anyone with a small, affordable receiver.
Satellite internet isn’t anything new, but it’s never really gained much traction
because it’s notoriously slow.
That’s because at present, it uses satellites in geostationary orbit,
approximately 35,000 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
That’s a really long way for your data to travel.
But this is where the SpaceX plan differs.
The network of Starlink satellites would be at altitudes between 550 and 1,150km.
That’s way lower, and as such, way faster.
Current estimates are that
Starlink could provide a download speed of around 10GBps,
which puts it at the front of the pack.
So that sounds great, global ultra-fast internet for all!
Thanks Elon, let us know when you’re up and running!
Well not so fast.
Firstly, Starlink is very much still in the R&D phase.
Secondly, there are still some unresolved issues with the idea.
The comparatively low altitude of Starlink satellites
means they would be visible to the naked eye,
and while there are currently around 500 satellites at the proposed altitude,
upping that number by 12,000 might start to make the night sky a little crowded.
As well as that, such a big increase in number
is bound to contribute to our already problematic amount of space debris.
SpaceX are working with these things in mind,
but we won’t really know the extent of the problem until they’re up and running.
Time will tell.
So right now, no one solution seems to solve all our problems.
Geostationary Satellite internet gives us far-reaching coverage, but at low speeds.
5G gives us high speeds, but with a limited reach.
Starlink is the silver bullet in both these respects,
but it comes with a whole host of completely new, yet to be solved, problems
as you might expect from such a crazy, innovative idea.
And when it comes to crazy futuristic global Internet ideas,
it seems like everyone wants to the join the party.
We’ve got Amazon’s Kuiper, Google’s Project Loon, Facebook’s Aquila...
And while these haven’t all panned out,
clearly we’re trying anything we can think of.
And rightly so. Because in the future,
how we access the internet is going to become just as important as how we use it.
Balancing speed, accessibility, cost and security is going to be key
in ensuring that the internet continues to be a beneficial force in our lives.
All the schemes we’ve discussed here
might ultimately turn out to only be small steps on this journey,
but there’s obviously a conversation to be had
- one we need to be having -
about the cost that we as a society, are willing to pay for improved connectivity.