Expanding Broadband Access

It’s easy to take broadband access for granted—unless you’re one of the 3 billion people on the planet who lack it. In the developing world and elsewhere, fiber-optic service is too difficult to set up, leaving satellite connections as the only alternative. But satellite service is expensive, costing some subscribers up to $300 per month. Astranis has a solution: an internet satellite just one-twentieth the size and cost of a traditional design that can be built five times as fast. The first MicroGeo satellite is slated to take orbit later this year to provide service across Alaska, where 30% of Indigenous people lack broadband; Astranis says the price will be half that of currently available service. In 2023 a second satellite will be launched, providing similar coverage to Peru. By 2030 Astranis plans to have a fleet of 100 satellites.

Write to Jeffrey Kluger at jeffrey.kluger@time.com.