Wireless For Remote Areas Using Balloons As Cell Phone Towers
Saw this report in the US media about an interesting new approach for providing Internet access to remote areas which lack infrastructure. The idea is to send balloons which soar 20 miles into the stratosphere, each carrying a shoebox-size payload of electronics that acts like a mini cellphone “tower” covering thousands of square miles below. WSJ reports that Google is partnering with Space Data, the company behind the balloon idea, and may even buy it.
Watch the video - by the way hinterland is the part of a country where only few people live and where the infrastructure is underdeveloped. In the context of third world countries entire provinces are hinterlands!
Additional excerpts from WSJ article.
Maintaining a telecom system based on gas-filled bladders floating in the sky requires some creativity. The inexpensive balloons are good for only 24 hours or so before ultimately bursting in the thin air of the upper atmosphere. The electronic gear they carry, encased in a small Styrofoam box, then drifts gently back to earth on tiny parachutes.
Google believes balloons like these could radically change the economics of offering cellphone and Internet services in out-of-the-way areas, according to people familiar with its thinking. The company is among the registered bidders for a big chunk of radio spectrum at a government auction currently under way in Washington.
While the balloons are cheap and disposable at $50 a pop, the transceivers they carry are worth about $1,500. Once a transceiver is released from its balloon to parachute back to earth, there’s no way to predict where it will land. So Space Data has hired 20 hobbyists with GPS devices to track them down.
Recovery missions can get intense. Workers have had to pluck transceivers out of trees in Louisiana, rappel down rocky cliffs in Arizona, trudge through swamps and kayak across ponds. Space Data pays them $100 per transceiver recovered.
“These things can fall anywhere,” says Chip Kyner of San Antonio, who once hiked seven miles before finding the transmitter he was looking for. The final mile was in pitch darkness.
“It wasn’t worth the $100,” he says, “but it’s a neat story
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But then what about Flight Safety?
Gentlemen: We R @ Bootheel Mo - Clay County Ar. Cell fone service =BAD. Is
ballon service = answer? Thanks JDW