Elon Musk plans global satellite network to provide wireless internet access

Hi-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has confirmed that he is working on a web of small, low-cost satellites that could provide wireless internet around the world.

The billionaire behind carmaker Tesla and the SpaceX programme for private space exploration said in a message on his Twitter account that SpaceX "is still in the early stages of developing advanced micro-satellites operating in large formations".

Musk provided no details, but promised an announcement in two to three months.

Musk is working on the project with satellite-industry veteran Greg Wyler, who spent some time devoted to a similar mission at Google, according to a report in . Musk said in another tweet that the story was off-mark on several points.

Musk and Wyler are trying to devise a feasible and relatively low-cost way to put about 700 satellites, each weighing less than 115kg, into orbit to provide wireless internet anywhere on the planet, the reported. The satellites would be smaller, more affordable, and more widely deployed than those currently in use commercially.

In 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.