America
Facebook, Google shelve satellite plans
New York, June 9
Facebook and Google have both
lost enthusiasm for satellite internet, according to media reports.
According to reports Facebook is dropping its plans for a geo-stationary
satellite over concerns that it will not recover costs.
Google,
which hired satellite entrepreneur Greg Wyler to prepare a satellite
constellation in 2014, backed out of that plan earlier this year,
reported Quartz.
Satellite-internet services today are fairly
expensive, and offer slow data speeds. However, Wyler and other
satellite entrepreneurs feel that constellations made up of many small
satellites could offer faster service, since they are closer to earth
than the typical communication satellites, which fly at high altitudes
to maximise coverage.
And that they would cost less, since tiny
satellites are typically less expensive. However, the technical
challenges to flying and operating a full-fledged constellation of them
may still prove too difficult to surmount.
Nevertheless, there
are still some businesses that dream of creating satellite internet,
since the potential rewards for success could be quite high.
Wyler,
the entrepreneur who left Google, founded a new satellite-internet
concern, with backing from Qualcomm and Virgin Galactic. Elon Musk's
SpaceX has said it is developing a constellation of small communications
satellites of its own.
If a company some day cracks the code of
satellite internet first -- through some combination of cheaper rocket
launches and more powerful mini-satellites -- Facebook and Google would
not expectedly be far behind in hogging the ham.