premise: U3b Networks (U3b being short for the underprivileged three billion who lack internet access) is a company in Jersey set up by Greg Wyler, former owner of Rwandas national telephone company. His company intends to provide cheap, high-speed internet access to remote areas in developing countries, which up to now has been the reserve of developed countries. Mr Wyler plans to charge $500 per megabit per month, compared with the $4,000 charged by existing companies. Mr Wyler has so far raised 40m from investors, but this seems like a risky investment, especially as billions were lost on similar projects in the past. So why are people investing in the hope of finding customers in the worlds poorest regions? The reason is that previous projects were over-ambitious and set out to provide global coverage, whereas U3bs project is far more modest in its optimism and its services will be available only to a 100km wide corridor around the equator, which happens to cover most developing countries. It will initially use just five satellites circling 8,000km above the equator and further expansion will be determined by customer appetite.
hypothesis: The satellites for the project will cost 8m each.