fta: Wyler plans to put up hundreds—648, to start with. The satellites will be in a low-earth orbit 750 miles up, much closer than even O3b’s machines. Engineers expect data to travel between space and the surface in 20 milliseconds, which would provide a state-of-the-art Internet service capable of handling any application. While sitting by the fireplace in his guesthouse, Wyler holds a gray, semispherical object about the size of a car tire. It’s a OneWeb rooftop antenna. Unlike a typical satellite TV dish, which requires an installer to aim the dish carefully to get reception, Wyler says, his device just has to be put on the roof, round side up. OneWeb will have so many satellites, he explains, you’d have a hard time not getting a signal. So where O3b requires large, specialized antennas run by telcos, OneWeb will offer this simple device for use by individuals and public and commercial buildings, such as schools, stores, and hospitals. It will act as a kind of local Internet hub connecting with nearby devices via Wi-Fi or a cellular signal. “You don’t have to buy an antenna,” Wyler says. “You just have to be near a school or a health center, and your phone or tablet will log on.” He expects the antennas to start at about $200 each and promises they’ll be durable and easy to use. “This thing can sit in the mud for months on end, it’s waterproof, and it has no buttons,” he says. “You should not need any words to figure out how to turn this on.”
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 08:37:49 +0000
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