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Cyber Space: SpaceX Plans Launch Of Satellite Internet Protoype

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- SpaceX is set to launch a rocket on Saturday carrying a payload that one day could bring competition to Comcast and Verizon.

Aboard the Falcon 9 is what Elon Musk's company hopes will be the first of more than 4000 satellites providing high-speed Internet from low-Earth orbit.

"These will provide low-latency and affordable broadband to the underserved and unserved populations throughout the United States and abroad," said Patricia Cooper, who heads government affairs for SpaceX's satellite division.

In testimony last May before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Cooper billed the proposed Starlink constellation as a boon for the 24 million Americans who don't have access to a speedy Internet connection.

"They're highly intelligent satellites," she said. "They can focus their beams on very small areas, they can reuse the frequencies they have very efficiently. That allows us to serve more customers with higher speeds and adapt our capacity where the demand rises and falls."

But it's not just in rural areas where SpaceX wants to beam the web from among the stars.

"We also expect, in areas where there are relatively few consumers with choices, that we would be a new competitor entering the market," Cooper testified.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission has given his thumbs-up to the idea.

"Satellite technology can help reach Americans who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fiber optic cables and cell towers do not reach," Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, said in a statement. "And it can offer more competition where terrestrial Internet access is already available."

The FCC has previously approved satellite broadband plans from OneWeb, Space Norway, and Telesat.

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