Almost everyone we know has broadband internet by now, but what if you're outside the coverage of your home WiFi and even cellular data services? This is actually the case in most of the world.
Well, I wanted to document here what the current situation is and hopefully, we can read this in 10 or 20 years and laugh at how crude and lame and expensive things were back in 2011.
Iridium is coming out with a new data solution for mobile devices that is satellite-based - your internet connection will work anywhere in the world. Middle of the South Pacific, Antarctica, top of Everest, anywhere.
- The device, which converts a satellite signal to WiFi and vice versa so your cell phone can use it costs $200.
- You also need a satellite phone to do the sending and receiving to the sats up top. Cost: about $1,000, plus contract.
- The data rate is slower than a modem (remember those? even though your cable internet provider probably calls the box they give you a modem, it is not a modem, it's a network bridge), it's about 26-27 Kbps. Miserably slow if you want to do anything other than simple email.
- Oh yeah, and it costs $1 a minute.
That kind of thing can get expensive fast. Let's see in ten years what the situation is.
My guess is, things will be very different.
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