A new generation of satellite entrepreneurs is headed back to the launch pad. Backed by billions of dollars from deep-pocketed investors, they plan to blanket the earth in the next few years with perhaps thousands of miniature satellites beaming cheap, ubiquitous broadband service.
What's different? Launching one of these smaller satellites can cost a fraction of the price for a larger, school-bus-sized satellite. These new satellites will largely be mass-produced. And consumers now demand high-speed Internet connectivity pretty much everywhere, on airplanes, cruise ships and in the remotest village in Africa.
Companies such as SpaceX, OneWeb and Boeing have all recently proposed networks of satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide high-speed broadband access around the globe.
Even Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has aspirations to bring Internet to poorly connected areas — a plan that was derailed in September after a satellite set to beam high-speed service to areas including sub-Saharan Africa was destroyed in the explosion of a SpaceX rocket on a Florida launch pad.
If this latest wave of satellite networks gets off the ground, it could pose a challenge to a $224.6 billion industry currently dominated by telecom and cable companies with their miles of fibre optic and copper wires.
"That's going to shake up how these operators are controlling different regions, and it's going to allow the consumer a little more of an option," said Taylor Palmer, industry analyst at market research firm IBISWorld.
In mid-December, the Arlington, Va.-based OneWeb said it secured $1.2 billion of funded capital in a round led by Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group Corp., which contributed $1 billion of the total.
The money will fund construction of a Florida satellite manufacturing plant, which is set to start production in 2018.
SoftBank is just one addition to OneWeb's list of big-name investors, which includes Qualcomm Inc., Airbus Group, Coca-Cola Co. and Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
Satellite-provided broadband service is still tiny. It generated revenues of $1.9 billion in 2015, according to a June report from the Tauri Group that was commissioned by the Satellite Industry Association trade group. That compares with $97.8 billion for satellite television.
But interest in satellite broadband is growing as consumers expect high-speed service in places that aren't always well-served by fibre or cable.
Analysts say satellite constellations could have the biggest effect in remote areas.
In 2014, almost half of the world's population lived in rural regions, which are largely unconnected to the Internet, according to a report from ITU, a special agency of the United Nations that handles information and communication technologies.
"Internet access is fundamental for understanding of culture, cultural differences, civic understanding and participation," said Greg Wyler, founder and executive chair of OneWeb. "It helps make the unconnected economically relevant to the developed world. When they're economically relevant, we pay a lot more attention to them."
The company has an ambitious timeline. It plans to launch the first 10 satellites into low-Earth orbit in early 2018 to test their capabilities. More launches will follow, with its broadband access beginning as early as 2019.
By 2022, OneWeb says it will connect every unconnected school to the Internet. Eventually, OneWeb plans a 700-satellite constellation.
OneWeb's satellite manufacturing facility in Exploration Park, Fla., is key to these plans. The company will mass produce its microsatellites with automated assembly capabilities similar to those used in aircraft production facilities, eventually making three a day.
SpaceX, based outside Los Angeles, plans to eventually launch more than 4,000 satellites for its network. In 2015, the company received a $1 billion infusion from Google and Fidelity Investments and opened an office in Redmond, Wash., near Seattle, to focus on developing the small satellites. SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has said the whole constellation could cost $10 billion to $15 billion.