Keith Wagstaff Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles. Sign Me Up By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! In a statement released Thursday, the FCC said it was the first approval of "a U.S.-licensed satellite constellation to provide broadband services using a new generation of low-Earth orbit satellite technologies." Yes, satellite internet does exist -- but it currently involves satellites orbiting very high above the Earth, around 22,000 miles. That's why it's so laggy and slow. Musk wants to solve that problem by launching satellites into low-Earth orbit, lower than 1,000 miles up. But those satellites can't provide enough coverage, which is why SpaceX wants to launch thousands of them. That's good news for people in remote areas, and in developing countries. Instead of having to build expensive broadband cables to serve only a few people, internet service providers could build towers that receive signals from SpaceX's satellites, and then beam those signals to customers. The downside is that this region of space could get crowded fast, with collisions causing collisions in a cascading disaster. Let's just hope Elon knows what he's doing. Featured Video For You