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Help Buy a Satellite That Will Provide Internet to Those Without
Posted By Andrew Michler On December 3, 2010 @ 4:45 pm In green technology,social responsibility | 5 Comments
Imagine not having internet. 70 percent of the world’s population is not connected to the web, and a whopping 90% of Africans do not have access to the net. But a new group called AHumanRight.org  have come together to change all of that. With the belief that access to the internet should be a basic human right, the inspired organization has come up with a new solution to the problem: Buy This Satellite . Their smart initiative focuses on using decommissioned satellites to provide free internet access to all corners of the globe, and as luck would have it, the most powerful internet satellite in the world could soon be available for purchase to help them reach this ambitious goal!
The satellite in question is the bus-sized, behemoth Terrestar-1, which launched in July 2009 by the now bankrupt  communications company TerreStar. The initiative Buy This Satellite is asking for seed donations to help raise a total $150k to fund the creation of a feasibility plan that could put this satellite in use.
The current vision is to move the satellite over to a partner country that can make good use of it, and then distribute low bandwidth communication devices to the population in need. The project is not looking to displace internet providers, but rather to create a stepping stone for rural and disadvantaged populations  to connect with the world.
While this may end up as a pie-in-the sky concept, this kind of bold thinking is in fact what the internet is all about.
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URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/help-buy-a-satellite-that-will-provide-internet-to-those-without/
URLs in this post:
 Image: http://inhabitat.com/help-buy-a-satellite-that-will-provide-internet-to-those-without/new-1-116/
 Buy This Satellite: http://buythissatellite.org/
 Image: http://inhabitat.com/help-buy-a-satellite-that-will-provide-internet-to-those-without/new-6-98/
 bankrupt: http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/101020-terrestar-files-bankruptcy.html
 rural and disadvantaged populations: http://inhabitat.com/category/social-responsibility/
 Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5704185/have-150000-buy-this-bankrupt-satellite-to-share-internet-with-the-poor
 Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/02/buythissatellite-150.html
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