It's being reported today that the top U.S. telecommunications regulator on Thursday gave formal approval to a plan by Elon Musk's SpaceX to build a global broadband network using satellites.

"This is the first approval of a U.S.-licensed satellite constellation to provide broadband services using a new generation of low-Earth orbit satellite technologies," the Federal Communications Commission said in a statement.

The system proposed by privately held SpaceX, as Space Exploration Holdings is known, will use 4,425 satellites, the FCC said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in February had endorsed the SpaceX effort, saying: "Satellite technology can help reach Americans who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fiber optic cables and cell towers do not reach."

About 14 million rural Americans and 1.2 million Americans on tribal lands lack mobile broadband even at relatively slow speeds.

The FCC said SpaceX has been granted authority to use frequencies in the Ka (20/30 GHz) and Ku (11/14 GHz) bands.

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on April 2 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. "The rocket will carry a communications satellite," the FAA said. Full report.

Three years ago Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple May be Investigating a Satellite Service from Boeing for Future Apple TV & Beyond." At the time Boeing stated that it could clinch a deal this year to build a high-throughput communications satellite for top technology companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook and others."

To date many companies have filed for FCC approval beyond SpaceX such as Boeing, OneWeb and Telesat.

For the record, Apple filed for a patent regarding future iPhones with Satellite connectivity back in 2012 and it was published in 2013.

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