You continuously say you plan to use wifi…
My assumption here is that you plan to have this network accessible to any commercial wifi device on the market.
This alone is a problem as part 15 will not allow the network to operate in this way.
However lets say for a second you want to work under the US Amateur Radio Part 97 specification.
This would allow the use of high power both in the sky and on the ground, it would however NEVER be allowed use in a cubesat as only ITU Region 2 (USA) has access to the 13 cm band.
You also have to take into consideration that other counties use this radio band for other purposes and that your satellite network would interfere with tier own.
Unless you run in a specialized radio band, this thing will never get off the ground as no government in their right mind would allow you to launch it.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to see it. but have you thought about this yet?
EDIT
So after reading a bit I wanted to add to this post.
You want to use this as a one-way network… so that most users are just receiving information.
Most commercial wifi devices don’t work in promiscuous mode, meaning they have to authenticate with the station. That right there blows the idea of standard hardware like phones from being able to receive anything from this network.
Dear friend, you underestimate the ideological force of this project and the levels of financial support for this event, the worst thing that can happen - this is the maximum start-up delay for the longer term, if there is a carry at the beginning of 2016. This time will be spent on the solution of financial and bureaucratic issues of the project, as well as to discuss some nuances in the law enforcement and other security agencies including in the military environment.
The entire project must change for it to ever actually work.
You simply cannot link off the shelf 2.4ghz gear like cellphones to this network it will not work.
I am not underestimating, it seems the people behind this either have no clue what they are doing or they are just enjoying the benefit of the donations.
EVERYTHING about this design has to change for it to work (except for the cubesat model itself).
Understand each in Russia there are no problems at all with what would work , the only question is price, and our programmers are able to connect and connect to anything and can even go online via an outlet at a voltage of 220 , and you’re trying to prove to me , that is not already started project rentabilen , and still bearing in mind that access to the network simple users is free, if you want , especially for you , we 'll make an exception and does not connect you to a network, for example by the ban … ) I do not presume to speak for Europe and the U.S. , as it is not aware that they have , but for us I can say for sure that the frequency difference is not important if there is a very strong source and relay to their large number , and your figures and examples I do not do not say … Because they are different for each country , as well as the names and formats of technology , but it is everywhere and internet and cellular network … If you have not noticed you money with no one asks …
Just if your side can not be this project is not for technical connections with other countries in mind differences in the software , we can write an original and versatile program , adapts any device access to a free network … I’ll say that it is quite probably you and microwave can manage through it in the near future . I emphasize that presently have no authority to speak on behalf of the company , this only have say exclusively on behalf of Russian programmers.
The issue has nothing to do with programming and software.
We’re talking about international laws that under the current scheme would not be legal.
In addition to that we have the fact that the creators want to use this network with a 2.4ghz down-link that any off the self device can receive… This simply will not work it’s a limitation of commercial software/hardware. It doesn’t matter the capability of the network.
You would be much much better off with a smaller constellation of packet satellites that users could receive with an rtl-sdr receiver or modified radio and a computer… then even licensed ham operators could uplink to the network.
I have already pointed out both the legal and technical issues with using wifi standards. This project is likely to switch to a more viable protocol, such as Digital Radio Mondiale. Mostly, they need their own techno-geeks to tell them that it’s not feasible before they commit to the switch. Using DRM from low earth orbit, however, is such a great idea (above the critical frequency) that I’m surprised no one has thought of it before. Of course, it probably has been; as that is basicly what Sirius Satellite Radio does; they just use a proprietary digital format.