High-speed Internet (also known as broadband Internet) means access to education, healthcare, jobs, entertainment, and equal participation in the modern economy. However, broadband is only available in densely populated areas around the world. The rest of the world is still waiting. In this digitally divided world of haves and have nots, universal broadband access is the great equalizer.
With this kind of demand, it’s no wonder that the global broadband market is forecast to double within the decade. Universal high-speed Internet access for all is good for the world, and good for business.
Growth of global broadband market
According to Grand View Research, the global broadband market was valued at $419 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to $875 billion by 2030. This tremendous growth is driven by the continual digital transformation of virtually all industries such as retail, healthcare, government, entertainment, and many more. Wireless technology holds great potential, due to its relative ease of deployment, in accelerating the global digital revolution across many verticals through productivity enhancements and economic reductions.
Satellite broadband Internet has been around for decades. However, the service is slow, expensive, data limited, and requires large receiver dishes mounted on fixed locations. These challenges are due to the inherent limits of older generation, gigantic and expensive satellites high up in geostationary Earth orbit (“GEO”), or even medium Earth orbit (“MEO”).
Thanks to a new generation of visionary space companies such as SpaceX (Elon Musk) and Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos), the cost of launching satellites into space has come down dramatically through reusable rocket technology and more frequent space missions.
As a result, it is now possible to deploy small, low-cost satellites that are in low Earth orbit (“LEO”). Closer to Earth means faster data transmission. However, it’s still very expensive and still needs special large receiver dishes mounted on fixed locations.
Digital Locations is developing a disruptive technology to do just that to help connect a world of more than 8 billion people