About 57% of the world population is offline — mostly because of unavailable Internet in poor or rural countries. Google, Facebook, SpaceX and other outfits plan to beam the Internet from either low-orbiting satellites or high-flying drones and balloons.

Source: CNN Tech

Date: November 11th, 2015

Source (has a short video): http://us.cnn.com/2015/10/30/tech/pioneers-google-facebook-spacex-oneweb-satellite-drone-balloon-internet/index.html

Discussion

1) The article says that “In many of the world’s poorest countries, where broadband could potentially have the greatest benefit in terms of bridging development gaps, even basic broadband service remains prohibitively expensive”.  Why would these companies want to provide internet service to places like these where profit is almost impossible?

2) These services plan to operate in places like India, but there are many internet providers in India who are very unhappy with this “U.S.-based anti-competitive approach”.   Is this a valid viewpoint?  Why / why not?