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Airships Tested As Two-Way Telecom Beacons
sgups writes "The Toronto Star (no registration required:)) is reporting about this firm which will supply spherical airships that will be used as high-flying telecommunications platforms to supply two-way Internet access across the United States and into Mexico and Canada. The article explains little of the technology though."
In order to reach the same coverage area as the 10 Stratellites, the company would have to install wireless equipment in more than 14,000 cellular towers at a capital cost of $56 million plus annual tower lease cost of $67 million, Lively said.
The new United States Homeland Security agency, created in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, wants telecommunications around major cities improved, and companies have been scrambling to find alternatives to cell towers and landlines, Colting said.
Great, they want reliability in case of a disaster so they think combining 14,000 towers into 10 big balloons is going to be better. Might not be a single point of failure.. but I'd prefer 14,000 points of failure rather than 10.
You thought right, but think wrong.
.bomb years had a ton of people trying to sell shit that will become common place in the future. They were just too early .. technology and markets both have to hit puberty before people stop snickering.
... there are huge differences between today and 1998.
.. and the news is especially interesting given how tentative companies are to spend on this sort of thing today. Must have been a dam convincing test flight.
The first ones usually tank. Than somebody finds the magic pill, and voila.
The
Christ, I can't believe how many people sound like they switched their 1998 office chair for a 2002 rocking chair
Read the article and you'll note there is a sale in there. Hard to tank when your clients actually have the money to pay up these days (or youre not being paid in stock.)
"Old man yells at systemd"
who says these will be cheap?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Whats the liability if one these ships crashes? They are going to be over heavily popullated areas. Seems like a big disaster waiting to happen.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
That NASA thing can carry 50lbs. Better? The balloon can carry 400 times as much telecom equipment, and maybe more if they build bigger ones. What advantages does the drone have that make it better?
Read jack phelps dot net
Note that it's primary mission doesn't seem to be telecommunication but scientific. (Though the grand-parent poster did this mistake and not the one I'm replying to.)
Since it's Nasa I wouldn't be surprised if they intend to use the technique for creating more durable machines for remote monitoring eg for other planets. (But other than Mars and the inner planets I don't think a solar powered flyer is going to be much use.)
Well, if it's not less expensive than satellite, no one would bother trying. So, while it may not be as cheap and quick as DSL, it should be better than the existing satellite options.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Remember this story posted on /. about a year ago, about having using jets as flying antenna platforms for broadband? I remember reading that and thinking, "Jets? Jets??? What a dumb-ass idea. All you need is a blimp." Huzzah!!!
Plus, the look is straight out of Star Wars. Cool!