Where does Elon Musk find the time? When the ambitious entrepreneur isn't busy dreaming up the future of electric vehicles, or the future of space travel, he seems to either enjoy spending his time playing Kerbal Space Program or pondering up new ways that he can effect massive change in an otherwise stagnant technological field.
In this case, Musk has said that he wants to create a brand-new global communications system that would be able to provide low-cost Internet service that's of a reasonable speed (and good connectivity) to the billions around the world who don't have it. Said service would allegedly be as fast as the fiber-optic connectivity that is ever-so-slowly being deployed around various U.S. cities at the moment.
"The speed of light is 40 percent faster in the vacuum of space than it is for fiber," said Musk, in an interview with Businessweek. "The long-term potential is to be the primary means of long-distance Internet traffic and to serve people in sparsely populated areas."
Musk's system—name yet to be announced—would use hundreds of satellites positioned roughly 750 miles or so above the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit. As Businessweek notes, that's a lot shorter of an altitude than the 22,000-mile heights that communications satellites are typically positioned away from the Earth. The shorter distance is where Musk is undoubtedly getting the speed advantage, as it would take a lot less time to data to travel to the satellites, bounce around the orbital network, and beam back down to its intended destination.
If this idea sounds more fanciful than realistic, Musk did note that his project will likely be headquartered in SpaceX's new Seattle office. Around 60 people, who will also be working on SpaceX's many rockets and cargo systems, will likely help kickstart the communications effort. Musk said he believes that the project could employ up to 1,000 people within a few years.
As for a timeline, Musk doesn't expect that such a service will be ready for at least the next five years, if that. And it'll probably cost around $10 billion or so for SpaceX to actually create. However, creating this giant communications system will help SpaceX address a secondary goal—at some point, getting a global communications network up-and-running for a Mars expedition.
That is, of course, assuming that this communication network can get off the ground. Virgin founder Richard Branson said that he doesn't believe SpaceX even has the spectrum to create such a network, let alone any space in the air where its hundred-plus satellites could live.