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Good management and policy by the FCC would allow in the near future many solutions.

However, donâ(TM)t expect â¦, do expect anti-competitive freq-hogging by telcos to keep control of local market.

In the near future, it should be possible to provide 100% wireless voice, data, TV, ⦠multiple carriers/providers over the most populated areas. Allowing the customers to swap (totally, 100%) providers/services for QoS or cost reasons. I look forward to getting rid of the wires in the house and the local-bell. The USA Government and businesses are not in the lead on these technology sectors.

PLEASE, check out these technology concepts: http://www.airship.com

REVOLUTIONARY AEROSPACE SOLUTIONS FOR TRANSPORT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

There are other companies around the world (Europe) moving in this direction.

Take a look at http://www.cargolifter.com/2002/repository/splash_ e.html

Take a look at http://www.aiaa.org/images/about/01_TC_Highlights/ aiaa-lta.pdf

Take a look at http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/haa.h tm

OldHawk777

Reality is a self-induced hallucination.

I remember when my Dad was telling me about this company called SkyStation in 1997 which was going to do the same thing. I doubted it would be possible. They still haven't delivered.

Their current FAQ boasts, "When will the Sky Station system be available?
With flight testing commencing later this year, Stratospheric Telecommunications Service will commence with the first Sky Station platform deployment in 2005. Sky Station platforms will be implemented in accordance with user demand as expressed by responsible organizations in each country."

Enter the Wayback Machine for this same FAQ page:
1998 claims of launch in 2000
1999 claims of launch in 2002
2001 claims of launch in 2004

Stating that a test launch will occur "later this year" (hey, that makes it easier to update the page), and they're planning deployment in 2005. How the hell can they even know when they'll be deploying if after 7 years they still haven't done a test launch.

Let's not forget StratSat or the Japanese Airships for cell phone use. Comon', someone show me a non-artist rendored picture or active deployment with one of these. Until I see that, it's all vaporware left over from the dot-com sucker era. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just wondering about it being economically feasible and the unreliable in the atmosphere from ever-changing winds and weather conditions.

Here is that promised document from China talking about all these other blimp-type platforms (a sucker is born every minute):
http://www.bakom.ch/imperia/md/content/english/fun k/forschungundentwicklung/studien/HAPS.pdf

How much is a pre-wired house worth to you? Nothing, there are many less troublesome, relative easy to implement, and low cost options.

What will this do for community building? The last mile is not in the interest of the telco's to implement. Telcos' control of the customer will be marginalized (maybe lost) by providing ATM-VPC, VPN, VoIP, .... However, if the third link concept (listed below, Airship) ever takes-off, then the last mile problem will quickly end in many locations.

Possible Solutions (what wire/cable are y'all talking about? Is there a problem in the house?:~):

14Mb/s Apartment/Condo linked to switched-hub to Switch in basement/attic.

http://www.homeplug.org/index_basic.html

11Mb/s Home/Apartment/Condo W-LAN (low power) linked to HomePlug Access point.

http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/main.html#Tu torial

Last Mile Connection to the internet/intranet/... is comming.

http://www.airship.com/prod/uses_telecoms_frames.h tm

OldHawk777

Reality is a self-induced hallucination.

Future of user/subscriber go-everywhere & do-everything (GoDo for short) computing would include communications (GSM, WiFi 802.11x, Bluetooth, and IR/RF capabilities included). Still ... I would select Transmeta code-morphing processors as the technology edge for that future not Intel, Motorola, or TI ... though TI does now have a chip set that comes closer to the above stated goal for digital transmission systems. Transmeta code-morphing processors provide the ability to redefine operational spectrum requirements as you travel locally and globally with (I suspect, don't know?) less complex circuits/chip sets. The technology is known as Software Definable Radios (SDR). The future looks good to me ....

Related Links:

SDR.org - http://www.sdrforum.org/sdr_primer.html

TI DR Chip Set - http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020109S0063

Transmeta - http://www.transmeta.com

Airship - http://wireless.iop.org/articles/feature/1/1/3/1

http://www.airship.com/prod/uses_telecoms_frames.h tm

OldHawk777

Reality is a self-induced hallucination.

lets hope they manage to build the skycat 1000 then ...

ATG came up with a similar idea some time ago - doesn't look like they've got as far as a prototype yet tho - their design is a more usual blimp shape rather than spherical mind ...

ATG

Personally, I'd love one of their large Skycat's - imagine a beo.. I mean it'd make a great house ...

There is a lot of interest recently in stratosphereric platforms as an alternative to satellites, both heavier and lighter than air.

Geostationary satellites are too far to support high data rates to mobile terminals and also suffer from high latency. LEO satellites require an entire constellation covering most of the Earth before there is continous coverage in any part of the Earth. This all-or-nothing property makes it a dangerous business proposition.

Some links:
StratSat
CargoLifter and Boeing
Yokosuka
AeroVironment

This kind of cargo airship would be very large, take a long time to get anywhere, and would probably fly much, much lower than a plane. Trying to keep its existence secret would be a substantial challenge to say the least.

So, given the non-secretness of the whole idea of a big cargo airship, the difficulty of keeping one secret if it existed, and the fact that the exact capabilities of a transport aircraft aren't generally the most important things to keep secret anyway, why bother?

Yes they would; lower fuel consumption, much greater endurance, less risk of a catastrophic failure - and lots of area for solar cells that can help power the relay.

You have to design a special ship, normal airships fly relatively low and their useful load drops off quite rapidly with altitude. You have to think about building BIG for quite a small payload. Then consider things like reliability, redundancy and UV light eating away at the envelope. But it should be doable.

A British company, the Advanced Technology Group is prototyping just such a relay. It's called StratSat and the prototype could fly in the next year or two.

Best wishes,
Mike.

StratSat is from Advanced Technologies Group and will sit at 20km altitude for up to 5 years, using photovoltaics for power.

Hopefully it will be a bit more successful than the last big British airship...

StratSat is from Advanced Technologies Group and will sit at 20km altitude for up to 5 years, using photovoltaics for power.

Hopefully it will be a bit more successful than the last big British airship...

Hence the resurgence in popularity of Airships. Zeppelin's making a new one, as is ATG

Ah. Lighter than air. A subject I actually know something about :-)

Regardless of your pronouncements, airships are actually well suited for this purpose. In fact, there are several projects to fulfill this type of mission with unmanned airships.

At the altitudes involved, there is actually an atmospheric layer where winds are comparatively light.

The large surface area available on a lighter than air vehicle makes it a natural for collecting energy from sunlight. Gas retention is not a problem. Decades ago, comparatively small free balloons were already flown for periods of six months or more. A far cry from a few days, eh?

There is actually currently a renaissance of airships the likes of which has not been seen since World War II. Zeppelin Metallwerken in Germany has developed a unique semirigid design, which will initially be marketed for touring. CargoLifter, also in Germany, has just completed construction of a vast hangar, and is about to begin construction of a ship capable of carrying bulky indivisible items of cargo up to 160 tons for delivery from hover at minimally prepared destinations. Advanced Technologies Group in Britain is flight testing a scale model of a another cargo carrying design which uses an air cushion to make a large advance in ground handling. Lightship, in Britain, is currently conducting successful trials in Kosovo of a land-mine detecting and surveying airship.

References:
http://www.zeppelin-nt.com/
http://www.cargolifter.com/
http://www.airship.com/index_frames.htm
http://www.airships.com/
http://www.mineseeker.com/
http://spot.colo rad o.edu/~dziadeck/airship/htmls/introduction.htm