Whoever owns the skies has the opportunity to be the telecom operator of the future, creating a network in space akin to what AT&T (T, Tech30) made by laying down cables in the dirt 100 years ago.
Also, the Internet is so pivotal to commerce and communication that access is starting to be considered a human right. The Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 were made possible by protestors coordinating via Facebook and Twitter (TWTR, Tech30). When Egypt pulled the plug on the Internet to try to assert authoritarian control, it showed that land cables are a liability to liberty.
Advocacy groups like Outernet and A Human Right (led by a former SpaceX engineer) hope to acquire satellites to deliver Wi-Fi from space to make sure that never happens again.
To make the Internet from space a reality, entrepreneurial billionairs are trying something daring.
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