Satellite internet for your car - $7,000 (LA Times)

The story (snippet & links below) also says the antenna is around 4 feet
x 3 feet and requires direct line of sight to the satellite. Monthly
service is $50/month. If you go over your allotment of 10 hours/month,
it's $5/hr peak and $2.50 /hr off peak. For $100/month you get unlimited
off peak hours.

Well...I think I'll hold off for now. I'm wondering who really really
needs internet that badly.

Lance
*****



David Colker
Technopolis
In-Car Net Access: Spotty and Pricey
A satellite-based service will let people link to the Web from their
vehicles. But the hardware costs $6,995 and may not work near big buildings.

LAS VEGAS — At the Consumer Electronics Show — the annual bacchanal of
gadgetry in Las Vegas — sometimes the technology is more intoxicating
than useful.

A case in point: Satellite-based Internet service for cars.

Rolling down the famed Strip in a Ford Explorer last week, I tried out a
system developed by RaySat Inc. that sent my mouse clicks and keystrokes
directly to a satellite 22,000 miles above the Earth and returned Web
pages, e-mail, music and instant messages back down to my laptop. (Don't
worry, I wasn't driving.)

The SUV essentially became a roving satellite-transmission platform.
Unlike the passive reception of satellite TV and radio, this technology
promises to allow consumers to interact directly with a satellite by
sending signals into space.

The Consumer Electronics Show was the coming-out party for RaySat's
SpeedRay 3000 Internet system, which the Vienna, Va., company has been
developing for a couple of years. It uses global positioning system
technology to aim its car-top antenna, which looks a bit like an
oversize cafeteria tray, at a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The
Internet signal comes down from the satellite and fills the car via a
wireless modem hooked up to the antenna.
<snip>

Full story in the Los Angeles Times Business section (registration
required):
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...ck=1&cset=true

Lance wrote:
> The story (snippet & links below) also says the antenna is around 4 feet
> x 3 feet and requires direct line of sight to the satellite.

That'd look great mounted to the top of a Prius.

Lance <lltbhill@link_earth.net> hath wroth:

>The story (snippet & links below) also says the antenna is around 4 feet
>x 3 feet and requires direct line of sight to the satellite. Monthly
>service is $50/month. If you go over your allotment of 10 hours/month,
>it's $5/hr peak and $2.50 /hr off peak. For $100/month you get unlimited
>off peak hours.

| http://www.raysat.com

Sounds like a DirectWay reseller. This is nothing new and there are
plenty of other vendors.
| http://www.motosat.com
| http://www.groundcontrol.com/mobile-...e-products.htm
| http://www.c-comsat.com
| http://www.internetanywhere.us/pages/883501/index.htm
| http://www.mobileuniverse.com/highsp...bilesatellite/
(etc...)

What is new is that Raysat is quite different from the aformentioned.
Instead of a relatively big (and slow) tracking dish, they use a small
(5" dia) phased array antenna.
http://www.raysat.com/products/
http://www.raysat.com/webdata/Catego...ay%203000b.pdf
Hmmm... 1.7 watt transmitter.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Lance wrote:

> The story (snippet & links below) also says the antenna is around 4 feet
> x 3 feet and requires direct line of sight to the satellite. Monthly
> service is $50/month. If you go over your allotment of 10 hours/month,
> it's $5/hr peak and $2.50 /hr off peak. For $100/month you get unlimited
> off peak hours.
>
> Well...I think I'll hold off for now. I'm wondering who really really
> needs internet that badly.

I know mobile users doing this for a lot less than $7000 - and with a
smaller antenna - but they do have to be stationary while the Internet is
in use.
--
derek