“Boeing Co on Monday said it could clinch a deal this year to build a high-throughput communications satellite for top technology companies such as Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. or Apple Inc.,” Andrea Shalal reports for Reuters. “Jim Simpson, vice president of business development and chief strategist for Boeing Network and Space Systems, told Reuters the big technology firms were keen to expand Internet access around the world to help them grow.”
“He said the challenge was to drive down the cost of satellite communications to be more in line with terrestrial costs, which would help the tech firms justify the expense of building a larger communications satellite,” Shalal reports. “But if sufficient demand failed to materialize, the tech companies would be left with the cost of ‘a really high performance satellite,’ he said.”
“Privately held Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has said it plans to build a system of 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) for global Internet connectivity. In January, it received $1 billion in investments from Google and mutual-fund giant Fidelity Investments,” Shalal reports. “Simpson noted that the Google investment was an equity stake in the company, not in the satellite project, but declined to say whether that meant Google could still be a possible customer for a higher-end Boeing system in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).”
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MacDailyNews Take: Gee, regardless of demand, how would Apple ever be able to manage the cost? (smirk)