The Plan to Beam the Web to 3 Billion Unconnected Humans

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A huge part of what we do online is simply consuming content. A satellite broadcasting company called Outernet wants to bring all this content many of us take for granted to the estimated 3 billion people without Internet access. That catch is that, in order to get content to as many people as possible efficiently and cheaply, Outernet’s connection goes only one way. “We want to solve the information access problem as quickly as possible,” says Outernet co-founder and CEO Syed Karim.

Outernet sells a simple gadget called the Lighthouse that can connect to a satellite dish and download -- but not upload -- information such as Wikipedia entries, public domain texts from Project Gutenberg, news, crop prices and more. The device doubles as a Wi-Fi hub, so that users can connect to it and download or browse text on their own devices. You can also build a Lighthouse-style receiver yourself, using the company’s open source software and instructions. The service is free, and anyone with the proper equipment can pick up Outernet’s broadcasts.


The Plan to Beam the Web to 3 Billion Unconnected Humans