Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have a lot of things in common. They built their wealth through Internet ventures; both of them are investing heavily into space travel projects; they are billionaires, and they greatly resemble supervillains. All that sounds like a remarkable match for a friendship, but it’s not.
Elon Musk complaint some months ago that suing SpaceX was the full-time job of Jeff Bezos. However, Blue Origin lost the lawsuits against SpaceX. Musk couldn’t resist avoiding the mockery.
Now, Musk has the opportunity to achieve a new trolling level bringing the Internet connection to Amazon. The Amazon jungle, of course.
According to Brazilian media Exame, Fábio Faria, minister of communications, met November 15th, with the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, in the USA. The idea is to connect rural schools and remote locations.
Elon Musk should come to Brazil to bring internet to the Amazon, said the minister of communication.
Elon Musk should visit Brazil
Billionaire Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, should come “soon” to Brazil as part of negotiations to bring the internet to rural schools and indigenous communities. A satellite monitoring service for the Amazon should also be implemented, said minister Fábio Faria, from communications through his social media. Faria met on Monday, at night with the businessman, in Texas. Shortly beforehand, he discussed the matter with the president of SpaceX, a space company, Gwynne Shotwell.
The idea is to connect remote locations and the Amazon through satellite signal reception kits developed by SpaceX’s Starlink program. The company has launched a mega constellation of low-cost satellites that offer high-speed internet – there are currently more than 1,700 units in orbit. The goal is to reach 30,000.
SpaceX has competitors like the British OneWeb, companies with which the minister spoke on the 11th, in Glasgow, Scotland, during COP26, the world climate conference. OneWeb has launched more than 350 low-orbit satellites. Another player in this market is Amazon, which, through the Kuiper project, intends to put 3,200 satellites into orbit to bring the internet to rural communities and remote locations.
The 5G auction, held on November 5th, provides for the connectivity of distant areas, rural schools and indigenous villages as a counterpart of the companies. Another obligation of the bid winners is to bring the internet to federal highways.