Finally, the Starlink broadband system is a reality. It is happening right now in our neighbouring country, Nigeria.
Again, the iPhone 14 is on the market and it has a satellite feature.
It does not have the normal sim tray in it, but what is termed an E-SIM.
Space X is a company that was founded in 2002 on May 6 by Elon Musk, with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonisation of Mars.
Just three years ago, it was reported all over the world that they have finally put up some satellites into space. An excerpt from a report by Jonathan Amos of BBC news had the captioned: ‘SPACE X puts up 60 Internet satellite
The SpaceX company has begun the roll-out of its orbiting broadband system.
A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida late on Thursday, packed with 60 satellites capable of giving users on the ground high-speed connections to the Internet.
Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s firm aims eventually to loft nearly 12,000 spacecraft for its “Star link” network.
SpaceX is one of several commercial outfits with permission to fly an Internet mega-installation.
Others also include the UK-based start-up One Web, which began its roll-out in February 2020 with six operational spacecraft.
Online retailer Amazon also has ambitions in this market. It is working on a 3,200-satellite proposal known as Project Kuiper.
All the concepts envisage flying spacecraft in a low Earth orbit less than 2,000km above the planet. This will minimise the delay or latency in the Internet connections.
Apple said that it would spend US$450million from its advanced manufacturing fund on expanding the satellite infrastructure.
It is fascinating how the world is gradually evolving. Smartphones have displaced wired telephones. Wireless Internet and speedier methods of connections like WIFI have also replaced computer to computer communication that involved connecting modems and dialing the number of the computer you wanted to communicate with. The new change is intriguing, very close and certain to improve the planet.
The point of all this is that very soon,
- Data will not be provided solely by network operators.
- Data would be far cheaper than it is today.
- One can choose to do away with network operators because you can still make your phone calls through the Internet space.
- This will also make connections to the Internet quicker than you can imagine.
- The days of network not being available in certain areas would be done away with because of the satellite connections being increased into outer space.
- Satellite phones would not be exclusive to some other users but common to all and sundry.
The fulcrum is that the network operators, especially those within the African market, are also drifting into financial technology companies.
Finally, if these current network operators are drifting into financial space without the physical brick and mortar approach, shouldn’t the current physical financial hubs think of synergies other than thinking they can stand on their own?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Think about it!
