Does Outernet follow a freemium marketing model?

For Outernet to sell only hardware and broadcasting free is like the early days of TV. People marvel at having a free movie theater at home - news, weather, education, etc. and they tell their friends. Eventually more and more people bought their TV set and the programming still needs to get paid for. Eventually the commercials or subscriptions come.

Freemium would be where the majority of people get the service for free and the rest is paid by a very few. The problem with a freemium marketing model is that the people that pay the money to run the show get to say what the programming is.

But it does not have to be that way.

A grocery store that offers free appetizers is not a freemium business. But there has to be a main course and dessert in the restaurant that gets people to come in and spend money. I see the Wikipedia pages, world weather maps and a re-broadcast of APRS messages a little like the free appetizers to get you into the restaurant.

So what kinds of services would the “main dish” offering from Outernet really look like? Listener supported programming? Datacasts specific to you or your region?

–Konrad, WA4OSH

The market for world wide satellite DATA services is starting to hot up.
Short to be extended. Brief Summary from memory.

Iridium Version 2 is 60% Satellites in place. H/Held device 10X Faster.
SpaceX 2 Leo satellites in Place out of 4000
OneWeb1 Test sat Ready to Launch 1000 Satellites. $1.7b Funded…

Outernet One-way data 30KBs Spot beam USA. Non Mobile receiver.

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The big money in the satellite business obviously thinks there is enough money in two-way satellite services to lauch a whole new iteration of LEO constellations for Internet access as well as GPS-like location services.
Google has been experimenting with Wi-Fi provided by balloons. I was tracking them on FlightRadar24 for a while.

People that don’t have Internet: 4 Billion.
Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day. 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.

Out of the 1 Billion not in poverty, how many can afford a LEO satellite service? Maybe 1/8?
My guess is that the target market these services are those folks that have enough money to get Internet service, but for which there is no Internet connectivity. This is the world-wide, mobile market.

Is there room for a low-cost version that can serve the other 7/8 Billion consumers with a data broadcast service?
You bet. This is the market I think Outernet is trying to reach.

So what will Outernet need to meet that 7/8 of a billion consumer market?
Low-cost service, perhaps subsidized by hobbyists that are willing to pay for some premium services.
What would it looks like?

Low-cost
One-way data
USA - for now
Lower data rate - for now
Fixed - for now

What services would be made available?

–Konrad, WA4OSH

I liked what they did for a while where you could buy credits to transmit your stuff over the pipe. It would be cool if you could pay to have your content delivered to everyone like a newsletter or everyone gets a demo of an app available for purchase. Or possibly it’s encrypted data with an app waiting for it on the receive with a stored account and you can deploy software easily anywhere in a country without needing much infrastructure. There are a few ways this could be sketchy but in many ways it could be enabling.

We will definitely bring back the messaging application, which could be either public or private. The same goes for file delivery, which would allow some people to operate their own audio/video delivery service of sorts.

Since our entire infrastructure has changed, we’ll also be talking to channel operators if they want to provide a standard resolution video channel to mobile receivers.

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OK … That sounds awesome. Well folks, strap yourselves in. We’re in for a heck of a ride!

cowboy-riding-bucking-bronco-3217538
It looks like we have a little work to do before we can talk about applications.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

I would love to send weekly podcast by satellite. I would gladly pay for overnight delivery.

–Konrad, WA4OSH