The FemtoStar Project is a global community of developers working towards one common goal - better, more open, and more private communications, anywhere on earth. At the core of the FemtoStar Project is FemtoStar Inc., a Canadian corporation wholly owned by FemtoStar Project members and tasked with ownership and operation of the FemtoStar satellite constellation. However, development of the hardware and software that make FemtoStar possible is undertaken by a global community of volunteer developers with experience ranging from embedded hardware, to secure telecommunications, to software development, to aerospace.

The FemtoStar Project is a global endeavour. All of our members joined the project online, many after coming across the project on their own and contacting us. If you've found us, and you want to help, don't hesitate to contact us.

Questions? Comments? Want to chat about satellites? Visit us on Matrix at #femtostar:matrix.org. Alternatively, email us at This address has been hidden to prevent spam being received. If you are reading this website as plain text or through a screen reader, the correct address is the word hello, then the symbol spelled with the letter before B and then the letter after S, then the name of this website or of our satellite, then dot com. heLoremlipsumldolorosit аamett fconsectetureadipiscingmelittSedodolorssemtlaciniaaacr deuismodоvitaet chendreritositm (if you have Tutanota, you can send end-to-end encrypted mail here too).

Development of what is now FemtoStar began with a project named Private Mobile Data Protocol (PMDP). While PMDP was intended to be a terrestrial network, many of the design elements now used in the FemtoStar Protocol were initially designed for this project. A series of tests in real-world urban and suburban environments throughout 2019 led to the conclusion that, without a dense network and an impractically large number of towers, reasonable coverage, even only at low speeds and only within city centers, was impractical with a license-free terrestrial network.

In early 2020, the decision was made to research the implementation of a PMDP-like network in a Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) system. While Mobile Satellite Service hardware (such as satellite phones, portable satellite internet terminals, and machine-to-machine/IoT satellite data terminals) is likely less familiar to the typical consumer than hardware for terrestrial mobile networks, the possibility of a satellite-based network offered an opportunity both to solve the coverage problem, and to improve the geolocation-resistance of the system (due to the inherently large footprint of communications satellites).

Within a month, a basic plan had been developed, and many of the remaining problems of the PMDP protocol (such as its lack of any mechanism for payment for service) had been solved. The core of the proposed network was a constellation of very small communications satellites - a design we named FemtoStar.

As the FemtoStar Project grew, development continued throughout 2020. In 2021, FemtoStar Inc. was incorporated in Canada as an entity to own and operate the FemtoStar satellite constellation on behalf of the FemtoStar Project.