Hello Worldwide Internet Starlink

All long-suffering cable customers, as well as people throughout the world who have no broadband Internet connectivity, have reason for optimism today.

On 24 May 2019, Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched 60 satellites of its Starlink constellation. Starlink, is intended to provide broadband Internet connectivity, "anywhere on Earth from space in an array that could one day contain over 12,000 orbiting transponders".

Competing constellation satellite-based systems may soon follow, including: OneWeb, which is funded by an international consortium, and Canada-based Telesat.

Perhaps, these new providers will soon give Mr. Comcast and Ms. AT&T some real competition, bringing Internet connectivity costs and services in line with those customers enjoy outside the U.S.

Starlink Mission

Happy Days Are Here Again!!

Yea!

Happy Days are here again!

That SpaceX, Tesla, Elon Musk guy is launching the first of his Internet satellites in a couple of days. Move over you nasty, nasty Comcast. I can breathe again!

SpaceX to launch internet from the sky, Steven J.Vaughan-Nichols, ZDNet, 15 Feb 2018.

SpaceX made headlines when it put a Tesla on its way to Mars, with the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy. Now, much closer to Earth, a Falcon 9 is getting ready to take its first two Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Feb. 17.

If all goes well, they'll be followed by 11,923 other Starlink satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The first two, Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, are test systems. These satellites will form a constellation of satellites, which will deliver broadband internet across the world.

According to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's Elon Musk is working on this because, "Elon tends to find an industry where customers are very angry and frustrated. Let's build little communications satellites and provide global broadband capability for reasonable prices." If this works, Musk plans to use the same design for a Martian internet.

These mass-produced satellites will use the relatively little-used V band, which covers 40GHz to 75GHz, to communicate with each other in a mesh network. They'll then work with Earth-bound receivers to deliver broadband internet. How fast will that be? Good question.

By 2022, SpaceX predicted -- to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) -- that: "Once fully optimized through the Final Deployment, the system will be able to provide high bandwidth (up to 1Gbps per user), low latency broadband services for consumers and businesses in the US and globally." And 1Gbps is much better than most of us get on the ground.

The rest of the story? Please go here.

Happy Days Are Here Again - Leo Reisman & His Orchestra - 1929

Soon a Competitor to the Companies Customers Hate the Most

It doesn’t seem possible but it has happened. The evil party, the Republicans, managed to allow this one out the gate… or, my mind is simply not warped enough and I’m just missing how they will play out their next scam. After all, the Republicans never miss a chance to screw the little people.

Anyway, here’s the story: the Federal Communications Commission has given OneWeb permission "to provide broadband internet service to the United States with a constellation of 720 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites using Ku- and Ka-band spectrum."

Translated, that means that two of the most hated companies in the USA, the big cable companies, Comcast and AT&T, may soon (beginning in 2018) have a viable competitor that can deliver Internet connectivity anywhere in the world via a fleet of some 720, low-cost satellites.

Big Karma meets Big Cable? My, My, My!

Checkout WorldVu Satellites Limited, d/b/a OneWeb for the background information and investors. These guys can actually deliver.

Go here for the big news story:
FCC approves OneWeb Internet via satellites, Nancy Owano, techxplore.com, 26 June 2017.

Top Ten Addictions

So, it's Wednesday... time for the newest addition to the Downriver USA blog... the I Knew That column.

While doing a little background work for a client, I stumbled upon an interesting website which listed the top ten addictions talked about on the Internet in 2014... thought you'd like to know:

Coffee: Caffeine, most commonly found in coffee, is an insidious addiction that affects many people in the U.S. According to research, up to 30 percent of people in the country drink six to seven cups per day. Make no mistake, caffeine is an addictive drug.

Gambling: According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, 80 percent of adults have gambled once or more in the last year, with 2 percent having some type of problem and 1 percent being pathological gamblers.

Anger: This is otherwise known as aggression addiction, and is characterized by an individual dealing with his or her problems using anger. It’s a damaging coping strategy, and its potentially addictive nature earns it a place on the list.

Food: Food affects the brain chemistry in the same way that drugs do, and around 2 percent of Americans have a food addiction. About one-fifth of food addicts are obese, and the problem is more common in women.
T
he Internet: Internet addiction is an emerging issue, and it’s tied to many different types of Internet use. Social media sites present a problem because they allow individuals to socialize and receive “likes” and other forms of encouragement 24/7, but it’s also tied to pornography addiction through the widespread nature of online adult sites and services.

Sexual addiction: 8 percent of men and 3 percent of women are estimated to be affected by sex addiction. For them, sex becomes a compulsive behavior rather than a physical expression of love. Generally, these individuals have low self-esteem and cope with this issue by becoming dependent on the hollow boost of sexual encounters, whether it’s one night stands or a related issue like pornography addiction.

Alcoholism: Alcohol is the key legal drug of most societies around the world, and it’s important to remember that it is as addictive and deadly as most illicit drugs. Alcohol dependence costs the U.S. $170 billion per year.

Drugs: Both illicit and prescription drugs fall into this category (although technically, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine should too), with legal drugs being a particularly relevant problem in America at the moment. Opioid painkillers like OxyContin are notably contributing to a prescription drug abuse epidemic.

Nicotine: Given its own category because of the harm it can cause through smoking-related diseases and its widespread nature, nicotine is a highly addictive substance responsible for the suffering or death of over 400,000 Americans per year.

Work: Despite over-working being seen as a virtue by some, it can be a mental health condition, and a serious one at that. Some feel unable to stop working, and continue to do so despite consequences to their personal relationships and health. Like drugs, work addiction messes with brain chemistry and can lead to dependence.

Please go here for more information.
Top 10 Addictions in 2014: Sex Makes The List, Addiction.com 21 Nov 2014.
http://www.addiction.com/4249/sex-among-top-10-addictions/