KYMETA - How metamaterial will change the world

This technology is going to be a game changer. Metamaterials offer the means to provide internet access to every person on the planet. We are speaking about nothing less than the greatest market conquest in history. Award winner Nathan Kundtz speaks about his plans to change the world through metamaterials.

Nathan is one of the world’s leading developers of so-called metamaterials. Among their other characteristics, these substances boast the ability to bend the waves around them. Metamaterials were originally developed for the military with the vision of invisible tanks and missiles. While it is, in fact, possible to make objects invisible through the use of metamaterials, this only works with very small objects.

Kymeta has harnessed the unusual characteristics of metamaterials to revolutionize an entirely different industry: mobile communications and data transmission. With the mTennau7, the Seattle company is building flat antennas that automatically orient themselves towards satellites round the clock. The product promises to put conventional satellite dishes out of business.

This means fast and powerful internet – all the time, from any point on earth. On planes, trains, cars or cruise ships, but also in those places on earth with developing infrastructure. This represents an opportunity to provide internet access to billions of people who have so far been completely cut off. And to them, this means opening the door to an entirely new world: one where information, communication, and education have been democratized.

Simultaneously, the “other three billion” offer the global economy a new market segment of titanic proportions. This may be the largest democratization and market opening of all time, more than ten times larger than the collapse of the Soviet Union.