I think we need to start a project to raise money to build and launch a satellite based ISP. The hardware on board the satellite would dynamically assign IP addresses and use encryption. As the IP assignment is done in orbit there would be no way for anyone on the ground to know who was assigned each IP address, therefore guaranteeing the anonymity of users unless they give themselves away by their browsing habits. The hardware on the satellite could be designed to be anonymity friendly, with such things as a "change IP" button on the GUI. This system could then use traditional ground based facilities which could be located anywhere within the satellites footprint which would not necessarily need to be in the same country as all its users. Anyone got any thoughts on how to go about starting such a project ?
That would be a large amount of money. I am in an "internet rich zone" where my connection line(s) are well over 100 meg for a reasonable cost. I know folks that are using Satellite internet with dismal speeds. I love the sounds of what you are proposing but the speed alone would prevent me from a really strong interest. I think you can pretty much accomplish what your attempting to do by using a QUALITY (activist oriented) VPN provider. I can chain 2-3 providers and still have around 50 meg on the exit node. Compared to Satellite that is light years ahead. My two cents.
I have read the newest satellite technology is using microwave bands, they can provide up to 50 megs which is pretty good, but yes it would be a large amount of money, I think under the current climate it might not be so hard to raise such funding though, I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that would love to stick it to the tla's, maybe even some governments ...
I think the cost of putting satellites into orbit is really not prohibitively expensive anymore, this news article describes hobbyists who put mini satellites up there for $8000 including launch. http://www.wired.com/2010/07/tubesat-personal-satellite/
Yes me too I think it would require a few million dollars to acquire the technology, develop the hardware, build the ground based facilities etc but still, not impossible.
On the subject of offering privacy orientated internet- that's my dreamworld. And then if it was free and available to the world, well, that's my pipe-dream Utopia. I think one day there will be something like it that's somewhat done in the spirit of free software (freedom). I doubt it would ever be as fast as commercial speeds, especially for that long awaited day fiber gets mainstream. But maybe it could be pretty fast. Kickstarter or any of the other various funding sites. But you can't just false advertise a thing, idea or concept (like solar roadways) and have it be a flop after the money is raised (again, solar roadways. see EEVblog). Not from incompetence, but just in practice it's very hard to organize people, or even get enough of the right people onboard, to get something big like that going.
