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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

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

Al Haig's company (yes, he really is In Charge) Sky Station has been talking about this for years now. Might sound a bit hokey, but it's just an extension of the Aerostat technology that's been used for the past decade to provide better radar coverage for the Gulf of Mexico. And, it's one heck of a lot cheaper to put up another balloon to replace a failure than to launch another satellite...

Since they are supposed to be pretty much autonomous I recon you could handle all or at least several of them at once. Probably you'd have a couple of bases around the US for instance and let them maintain 3-4. And have one or so as a "hot backup" and use for replacement.

But yeah, of course it's stupid to trust the guys behind the project right out. Naturally they're biased. But I do think that satellites are a bit too expensive for the purpose. Irridium would seem to provide good support for that theory at any rate. And there was another similar project called
Skystation going as well. That one has backing from Lockheed Martin. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more projects in the same genre.

And regarding the middle of the Atlantic I think what is really needed is better interoperability between systems. So when you're at home or in a city you use a very high speed link. The more rural areas you go to the lower speeds you get. But you should still be able to have one box that does it all. (Although it might need several different technologies implemented.)

But yeah, fast wireless on a remote island would be neat. I'd rather have it out in a park nearby though. ;-)

Skystation

However, given the current state of the telecom industry, I find it hard to believe that *any* of these projects will get off the ground (no pun intended) in the near future.

I think that maybe the people at the R&D department should take a look at some older technology. High data transfer rates over WAN type distances have been available for a long time; it's just that nobody has implemented it. Hop over to www.skystation.com. There you will find some technology called meteor scatter. This is where they bounce radio signals off the ion trails from tiny meteors hitting and disintegrating in the upper atmosphere.

This project sounds similar to the SkyStation project. I saw some conceptual designs of the airships for this project at Skunkworks.

Check out SkyStation. Their proposed system uses a statospheric platform held aloft by helium. Electric motors powered by photovoltaic cells (and betteries for the night) are used for stationkeeping. Sort of like a satellite in very low geostationary orbit.

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SkyStation.

Uses a lighter-than-air solar powered helium airship.

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Skystation