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UK Testing Wireless Broadband Via Airship
fruey writes "A team from York University, UK are about to test high altitude platforms, according to this article, as a way of bringing high-speed internet services to computer users in remote areas out of reach of broadband. They plan to use solar powered engines to keep the aerial platforms in position. The Capanina site have some more information about this stratospheric broadband experiment. More technical stuff can be found at the York University website
This technology could deliver broadband communications at data rates up to 120Mbit/s! Screw cable and xDSL, when will stratospheric be available near me?"
UK are about to test high altitude platforms, according to this article, as a way of bringing high-speed internet services to computer users in remote areas out of reach of broadband
I assume this means backwards places like the Fens, Channel Islands, Welsh valleys and Liverpool. It might help to teach them what a computer and electricity are for first.
I wonder if an airship (or zeppelin) based broadband modem would be appropriately called a `z-modem`... ;)
Why don't they just use five ounce birds carrying packets inside of cocounts?
Sig- http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?ayefly
Blimp pr0n!
...to hack into one of these babies and land it on my roof.
Typos... that's just how I role.
"Why is my net connection down?"
"The router crashed."
"Can't you reboot it or something."
"No, I mean it literally crashed. Some bird flew into it and the sucker fell from the sky. We'll be getting a replacement up in an hour or so."
It might bring a whole new meaning to "my network's gone down"
Bob
Listen to my latest album here
Gives new meaning to the term "Server Crash".
sorry officer, left my sig in my other computer.
I'm sure it will be a badge of honour in small English villages to say "Aye, I get me pr0n from tha' big tit in the sky!"
Trolling is a art,
That the British now have Airships, which previously only existed in Final Fantasy?!
DAMN YOU.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
From Texas?
Bob
Listen to my latest album here
Where do you live?? Pluto?
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
These things fly in the stratosphere, "hovering at some 12 miles above the earth's surface, much higher than almost all air craft" - or birds for that matter. While the article refers to microlights at the very start, the rest of the article and the other links concentrate on blimps. The air-traffic problem here comes not from the blimp itself, but rather from the cord tethering it to the ground.
How big are these airships?
It is appropriate that the source of one's internet might also block out the sun for short periods of time, thus rendering it safe for geeks to venture outside.
"Natural light! Get it off!"
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
Yeah, but if my ISP explodes, I won't get half a ton of Cablecom telco equipment dropping through my skylight from 12 miles up.
What's the terminal velocity of a wireless router anyway?
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
Esp. in bad weather, a lot of electricity at the same time :-)
sudo ergo sum
Are there pirates in small English villages?
....so if these things have status lights would they be LED Zeppelins.....?
This gives the term,"My ISP has crashed" new meaning.
Pretty Pictures!