Are there still places on Earth that don't have internet? Well, apparently, there are. But with the help of SpaceX, they will be lesser in number.
Who Needs the Internet?
Christian Patouraux, the founder and CEO of Singapore-based satellite startup Kacific, made an interesting proposition to SpaceX-- known manufacturer and launcher of space rockets in the world. His proposal follows this: "What about allowing isolated islands to access the internet to bring them to the digital age?"
With Patouraux's six years of analyzing the internet market in different regions in the world, he found out that most of the isolated islands do not have or have deprived accessed on the internet. But why is this?
The main assumption that many internet providers think, according to him, is that "there's not many people there, they don't need connectivity, and there's not a lot of money." This thinking was disagreed by Patouraux since based on his studies, all of these isolated islands were eager to have access to the internet and they are willing to pay for their services.
With this fact, Patouraux agreed with SpaceX to launch a satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to allow parts of the Pacific Ocean between Asia's southern coast and Australia to grant access to the digital age.
SpaceX Launches Satellite Giving Access to the Internet
On Monday, Dec. 16, SpaceX finally launched Kacific's satellite, named Kacific-1. This device will orbit 22,000 miles above Earth, where it will stay over the Asia-Pacific region to absorb. Kacific 1 is a new breed of satellites that allows higher capacity compared to other internet satellites in the world. To get cheaper materials for the satellite, it was built into a CondoSat, a two-in-one satellite, thus, giving space on other companies willing to share with Kacific 1, such as cable services.
Although Patouraux already said that investors can bring back their money in no time with helping his advocacy on rural communities, it is still a tough challenge to convince businessmen to invest in this type of business.
One problem that Asia-Pacific regions have when it comes to having the internet is their topography. If you're going to install broadband in these places, the amount would be more expensive compared to urban areas since a lot of materials are needed to extend the technology in isolated islands.
How Bad is their Need for Internet
Since Patouraux traveled around the world to meet with the populations of isolated islands, he personally encountered their need for this technology.
"...most of them had laptops or electronic notepads or smartphones. They were using them to exchange pictures via Bluetooth, or they would go out to the city and download movies and share it with others," said him.
Aside from their personal need for access on the Internet, Patouraux also observed that this technology may help their governments to transform their nations, especially in speeding up citizens' health status online.
As of now, Kacific announced that they will charge about $500 to $1,000 in isolated places. The company knew that this will be a costly amount for an individual living in those places, so they are only planning to launch these on schools, hospitals or even community centers wherein citizens can access online.
