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Broadband Barrage Balloons

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the moon-over-my-hammy dept.

alnya writes "BBC Online are reporting a story of a York-based company called SkyLinc who are floating baloons connected to a fibre optic pole which, they say, can deliver broadband access at "more than double the speed of most broadband services currently available" - whatever that means. Only 18 balloons would be necessarily to blow BT out the water (according to the article). Is this on the horizon?"

4 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. Not worth it... by CommieLib · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have to say...I've got DSL. Would I pay $10 more for twice the speed? Nope. I, like most people, I think, divide expectations into two categories: instant and "a while". I expect page loads to be instant, and I expect a video I'm downloading to take "a while". DSL delivers on these. So basically, the improvement only comes in "a while".

    In that "a while", I go off and do other things, perhaps (gasp!) even leaving the computer for a while. That that will take 5 mintues rather than 10, or 30 seconds rather than a minute delivers very little value to me, and I think "good enough" might really crowd out "best" here.

    --
    If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
  2. Definitely worth it by Hershmire · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People will subscribe to this for the exact same reason you subscribe to DSL. Remember on 56k when web pages were "instant", "a while" was for music (if you're lucky), and video was "read war and peace and see if the stream is done downloading"? $10 more/month is definitely worth double bandwidth.

    --
    if(!toilet_paper) roll.replace(new roll); //Stupid roommates.
  3. If protecting against the weather is possible.... by idfrsr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok,just to stop silly pellet gun comments... it would take one that could shoot 1.5km accurately (according to article that is how high they are and for the metrically impaired that's just under a mile), so that would be one nifty pellet gun. But it wouldn't suprise me in one such toy weapon existed in the US....

    The article only mentions the opportunity for UK coverage but what about countries where laying fiber/cable would be a huge undertaking. 3rd World contries could certainly benefit from this kind of technology, if it works as well as they say it does. Wiring countries without the usual western infrastructure might be much more cost effective with this approach. Though I am not holding my breath on this... though the article does mention that the US military uses things like these...

    --
    "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -Tom Waits
  4. The anywhere wireless is what sells me by snooo53 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd definitely tend to agree with you. Our cable service is certainly 'good enough' for my web browsing and downloading needs.

    However I think the real killer here is the wireless aspect. Imagine paying for one broadband account that you can use anywhere sans wires. For me I'd plunk down the extra $10 without a second thought.

    regards,
    Nik

    --
    The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.