Internet access for everybody: The satellite solution

The use of the Internet has been grown tremendously within the last decade to more than one billion subscribers. The other five billion people on Earth cannot enjoy the possibilities offered by the Internet.The digital divide is everywhere: in the developing as well as in the developed part of the world.In the developing countries basic communication needs (voice, IP access) need to be provided to a large population not living in cities.In the developed part of the world people residing outside the large cities, on the nice country side, have still difficulties to get broadband access. The reason being, that the investment to install the network infrastructure to this minority part of the population is a major part of the total investment for the network. The benefit for the telecom operators is marginal to get these customers on board.In this paper an analysis of the Internet and satellite development is being presented and based on these historical data a prediction of a possible evolution of satellite communications and broadband access is performed.One result is that the capacity of the GEO ring at the ${\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{a}}$-band alone would allow to provide to each individual on Earth in 2050 (assumed to be 10 billion people) a monthly capacity of about 1 Gbyte for a charge of 1$ per month.