Othernet

Othernet Inc. was a broadcast data company. Othernet sold a portable satellite data receiver that combined an amplifier, radio, and CPU in a single unit.

Othernet's stated goal was to make news, information, and education accessible to everyone. It aimed to provide free access to content from the web through geostationary and low Earth orbit satellites, made available effectively to all parts of the world. The project used datacasting conventional geostationary communications satellites in a satellite constellation network. Wi-Fi enabled devices would communicate with the satellite hotspots, which received data broadcasts from satellites.^[4]

The company and its service were previously known as Outernet, but were changed in July 2018 due to trademark issues. It received its initial investment from the Media Development Investment Fund, a United States–based impact investment fund and non-profit organization established in 1995 by Saša Vučinić and Stuart Auerbach. In 2015, Outernet (then Othernet) also launched an IndieGogo campaign, which raised $697,552 to finance the development of the Lantern receiver^[5] which was never completed or delivered to backers.^[6]

Othernet Inc. is listed as out of business as of 1 November 2025.^[1]

Othernet turned on their first public satellite signal on 11 August 2014.^[7] Othernet transmitted 1600 Mbits (200 MB) per day when it was using the L-band.^[8][9] Othernet's first signal was broadcast over Galaxy 19 and Hot Bird,^[10] covering North America, Europe, and parts of the Middle East and North Africa.^[11]

On 1 October 2014, Othernet released a major update that included a redesign of the Othernet website and the release of Whiteboard, their content suggestion platform that allowed anyone to suggest a URL for broadcast. Once a URL is submitted, other visitors voted on it with the URLs receiving the most votes entering the Othernet broadcast carousel.^[12] The Othernet broadcast was broken into three categories: the Queue, Sponsored Content, and the Core Archive.^[13] Content in the Queue was decided via votes on Whiteboard as well as requests via the Othernet Facebook page. Othernet planned to expand the avenues through which it would have been able to receive requests for content. Anyone could view what is being broadcast on Othernet at any time.^[12]

According to MDIF, the initial content access included international and local news, crop prices for farmers, Teachers Without Borders, emergency communications such as disaster relief, applications and content such as Ubuntu, movies, music, games, and Wikipedia in its entirety.^[14]

Requests to NASA to use the International Space Station to test their technology were declined in June 2014 due to, as stated by a letter sent by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to the staff working for Othernet, both inaccuracies within the proposition, such as "it is assumed that the NanoLab housing will be provided by the CASIS program outside the budget", and costs ranging from US$150,000 to $175,000. This resulted in the CASIS operations review stating in the letter that "the likelihood for mission success as proposed is not probable".^[15]

The company contracted with creative agency Code and Theory to design the satellite dish component required to receive Othernet transmissions, which Karim stated was intended to provide a design that could serve as a blueprint and be improved and adapted by users of the service.^[11] They had previously used Crowdspring to request design specification ideas from the public^[16]

The data from Othernet's broadcast was stored on receivers known as Pillars.^[9] The first three of these devices were installed in Kenya, the Dominican Republic, and an anarchist community in Detroit.^[9]

A second device produced by the company was expected to be able to be connected to a satellite dish to pick up the same signal, but also contained its own antenna to pick up a second signal Othernet intended to begin transmitting in the summer of 2015.^[9] These devices were called Lanterns.^[9] In March 2015, Othernet entered into a partnership with the UK Space Agency and Clyde Space expected to provide three nanosatellites for Othernet by 2016.^[3] These satellites were to be dedicated to the signal sent specifically to the Lantern devices.^[9] The schematics for the Pillars were made available to the public to be able to create their own versions.^[9]

Unable to meet the announced release date for the Lantern devices, Othernet sold a version with less capabilities that they called the Lighthouse beginning on 16 July 2015.^[17] Richard noted that prior to the in-house development of the Lighthouse units, receivers had been do-it-yourself constructions on Raspberry Pi.^[17]

Another way to access the transmissions sent by Othernet was to build a receiver, which required certain components, including an L-band antenna, low-noise amplifier, and DVB-T dongle with a special RTL-SDR driver to open up its debug mode SDR reception, the data received was stored on a user supplied computing device with the othernet decoding software, the received and stored content was then made accessible when a Wi-Fi dongle was connected to the hotspot. Though this L-band signal service had been discontinued prior to the company becoming defunct, the hardware was still able to receive other L-band INMARSAT signals.^[18]

The Outernet/Othernet system was a series of hardware testing versions codenamed Dreamcatcher. The eventual final Lantern used the K_u-band with a LNB which interfaced with and was decoded by a LoRa circuit on the ARM architecture based receiver board which downloaded to update the onboard stored content and resources from the satellite at 20 kbit/s.^[19] The continually updating content cache was accessible by connecting to the Othernet receiver's Wi-Fi using Wi-Fi equipped devices and viewed using that device's web browser without requiring a special app.^[20] Ku-band service to North America was provided by SES-2 at 87° West and for Europe by Astra 3B at 23.5° East geostationary orbit locations.^[21]

The Othernet project was raising funds to expand globally, in order to reach third world countries or populations lacking basic access to the Internet. The amount of funds necessary to kickstart the project was US$200,000. By 8 June 2015, $628,305 had been raised.^[22]

Othernet stated three specific goals: to provide information (1) without censorship, and for (2) educational and (3) emergency purposes. They stated that they planned to provide information about "news, civic information, commodity prices, weather, construction plans for open source farm machinery" and other types of information. They also said they would be providing access to "courseware", including textbooks, videos, and software. Othernet was expected to be available when access to regular Internet connection was down for any reason.^[14]

On 25 August 2014, Deutsche Welle announced a partnership with Othernet, citing their common goals of net neutrality and combating censorship.^[23]

Media coverage over the Othernet ranged from excitement to skepticism. A CNN video released on February 24, 2014, detailed the benefits of the idea, while noting its drawbacks such as costs and feasibility.^[24] Other media outlets that brought up the Othernet included the Washington Post and NBC.^[14] Media coverage also went into other competing projects that have surfaced, such as Google's Project Loon and Facebook's Internet.org.^[25]

There had also been debate over the politics involved in the introduction of the Othernet to the public. Many feared whether "the major telecom companies worldwide will fight the plans for space-based broadcasting of information readily available on the Internet."^[26]

A BBC News report summarized Karim's TEDGlobal talk, observing that illiteracy would be a limiting factor for rural adoption.^[27]

• Internet
• Internet.org, a partnership that plans to bring affordable access to selected Internet services to less developed countries.
• O3b
• OneWeb
• Project Loon, which worked on providing Internet access to rural and remote areas. The Alphabet subsidiary used high-altitude balloons.
• Toosheh (Knapsack for Hope), A similar satellite data down-streaming NGO service which uses common satellite TV equipment to record the data signal then decode it with a computer or mobile device.
• Wikipedia Zero, a project by the Wikimedia Foundation to provide Wikipedia free of charge on mobile phones via zero-rating, ended in 2018.