Canadian Firm Plans 78-Satellite Net Service

matty619 writes "A CNET article is reporting on another try at low earth orbit satellites for internet access, reminiscent of Teledesic, an ill fated $9 billion Bill Gates/Paul Allen et al venture originally consisting of 840 low earth orbit satellites (LEO-SAT). From the article: 'MSCI, which stands for Microsat Systems Canada Inc., is trying to be a bit of a maverick with its project, called CommStellation. The company said today that its approach of using small, inexpensive satellites in low orbit — about 620 miles above the Earth — means better coverage of the world's population, quicker launch, and better network capacity.' Each MSCI satellite has a data-transfer capacity of 12 gigabits per second. The expected lifespan of each is 10 years, and they can be sent back into the atmosphere at the end of their lives to avoid more orbital clutter."

This will be great!

[h4rr4r]

High ping, high jitter, low bandwidth once you factor in number of users and high cost, what could be better?

What happens with China?

[DeltaQH]

Such a service, flying over the GFW, would theoretically give access to uncensored internet.

Will the company filter traffic from China in exchange to get into that market.

Will China shoot the satellites down?