nytimes.com — These still are early days for the Internet, globally speaking. One billion people online; five billion to go. The next billion to be connected are living in homes that are physically close to an Internet gateway. They await a solution to the famous “last mile” problem: extending affordable broadband service to each person’s doorstep.
Feb 4, 2007 View in Crawl 4
hackwrenchFeb 4, 2007
Well to clarify, one reason that WiFi (and additionally Cell phones) is a stopgap measure is that it is designed around the artificial limitation of the FCC doling out spectrum. What makes the problem even worse is that much of that spectrum is allocated to the one-directional broadcasts of TV and radio.The applications that humanity is going to want to deploy is another issue to consider and social problems are getting in the way of deploying both the applications and the network.
lyph4Feb 5, 2007
I think internet access is too much too soon. There are still over 1bn people in the world who have never heard of the United States. We need to get these people educated before we introduce them to the internet.
Closed AccountFeb 5, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2005_Sept_16/ai_n15396008">http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2005_Sept_16/ai_n15396008</a>Here's an article i found about it. The top speed for the service right now is 3mbps which is OK i guess.
fittysixFeb 5, 2007
Ricochet anyone?<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_%28internet_service%29">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_%28internet_service%29</a>It didn't succeed, but maybe it was just before their time.Personally though, if they can run copper phone lines to every new house I don't see why it would be too hard to run fiber (even if it does remain mostly dark)
grumpyrainFeb 5, 2007
What can I say.<a class="user" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCkYfYa8ePI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCkYfYa8ePI</a>
rickthebrickFeb 5, 2007
Here is a company that is trying weather balloons. It is <a class="user" href="http://www.extendamerica.com/products/highspeedinternet.php.">http://www.extendamerica.com/products/highspeedinternet.php.</a> They send up the balloons and they drift over their area. When they get out of that area they are released and have a reward when someone returns them. The only thing I know about it is through their internet site. It is still only in North Dakota.
mitrovarrFeb 7, 2007
@cgoff - "actually the speed of radio waves, if it was light satellites would have much better ping response. :)"Radio waves are light (electromagnetic radiation) and travel at the same speed.If you didn't know that, you really need to go back and review your physical science.
mathew1234Mar 20, 2010
It is most welcoming issue