Vodafone planning to launch 4 G network on moon by 2019
Vodafone is planning to expand its 4G network to the skies quite literally. The British telecom major is setting up the first 4G network on the moon to support a mission by PTScientists in 2019.
“The moon will get 4G coverage next year, 50 years after the first NASA astronauts walked on its surface. Vodafone plans to create the first 4G network on the moon to support a mission by PTScientists. We have target to land in 2019 on Moon,” a Vodafone representative said.
The 4G network that will now enable high-definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to earth is part of a project to back the first privately funded moon mission.
Vodafone said it had appointed Nokia as its technology partner to develop a space-grade network which would be a small piece of hardware weighing less than a bag of sugar.
Vodafone testing indicates that the base station should be able to broadcast 4G using the 1800 MHz frequency band and send back the first ever live HD video feed of the Moon’s surface, which will be broadcast to a global audience via a deep space link that interconnects with the PTScientists server in the Mission Control Centre in Berlin.
